The Travel Chronicle

MANATEE SPRINGS · FLORIDA · THE 12-MONTH VERDICT Between January and July, the air over this corner of Florida climbs 24.2 degrees, from an average high of 65.9°F to 90.1°F. The spring water does none of that. It has no season, which turns the usual when-to-go question inside out: you are not picking a temperature … Read more

FLORIDA · WAKULLA SPRING · THE 12-MONTH VERDICT Take October and stop deliberating. Air highs average 81.7°F, rain totals 3.24 inches, and only 3.9 days in an average October record at least a tenth of an inch of rain, the fewest of any month in the 1991-2020 record. The spring makes the choice easier than … Read more

FLORIDA · TROY SPRING · WHEN TO GO Troy Spring pushes out the same water in February that it pushes out in August. The air above it does all the moving: an average July afternoon at the nearest weather station reaches 90.1°F, an average January afternoon 65.9°F, a swing of 24.2 degrees over a basin … Read more

TAMPA, FLORIDA · BEST TIME TO VISIT · THE 12-MONTH VERDICT From October through May, the Tampa rain gauge barely moves: every one of those eight months lands between 1.40 and 2.65 inches. Then summer arrives with a different instrument reading. June alone brings 7.37 inches across 9.5 days wet enough to register a tenth … Read more

SILVER SPRINGS · FLORIDA · BEST TIME TO VISIT Silver Springs sells one thing above everything else: water clear enough that the boats have glass floors. The spring rises out of the aquifer at a temperature the calendar barely touches, so the month you pick does not change the swim, the paddle or the view … Read more

FLORIDA · SILVER GLEN SPRINGS · 29.2° N The spring run at Silver Glen empties into Lake George, and the water leaving the boil holds one temperature all year. That single fact reorganizes the trip. Choosing a month at this spring is a decision about the air you stand in when you climb out, the … Read more