Where to go, and when · with the homework done
TAMPA, FLORIDA · MARCH · THE MONTH GUIDE Tampa’s March is the warm half of a cool month. The airport’s 1991-2020 normals put the average afternoon at 77.8°F and the average night at 59.3°F, an 18.5°F swing that settles what goes in the bag more than any forecast will. Rain adds up to 2.52 inches … Read more
TAMPA · FEBRUARY · 27.9° N An average February afternoon in Tampa reaches 74.0°F, and the night before it dropped to 55.5°F. The whole month collects 2.62 inches of rain across 3.6 days wet enough to measure. That is the shape of Florida’s dry half, November through April, and it is why a February weekend … Read more
TAMPA · JANUARY · 27.9° N Tampa reaches 71.3°F on a normal January afternoon and falls to 52.8°F before sunrise, a spread of 18.5 degrees that catches out anyone who packed for Florida and only Florida. The Gulf is colder still, averaging 63.0°F. Sunshine is generous, the parks walk well from breakfast to dusk, and … Read more
FLORIDA · GULF ISLANDS NATIONAL SEASHORE · 160 MILES Gulf Islands National Seashore stretches 160 miles along the northern Gulf coast and crosses a state line along the way: Florida and Mississippi each hold pieces of it. The Park Service counts 138,306.64 acres in the total. Inside that figure sit barrier islands, maritime forests, historic … Read more
FLORIDA · BIG CYPRESS NATIONAL PRESERVE · INTERNATIONAL DARK SKY PARK The Park Service calls Big Cypress the back yard of millions of South Florida residents and visitors, and that phrase carries more information than any brochure line. It describes a place people use in pieces: an afternoon on a trail, a night under the … Read more
FLORIDA · BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK · 172,971.11 ACRES Biscayne National Park covers 172,971.11 acres, and almost all of that is water. You reach the park by boat and you use it by boat, which puts a hull, a paddle or a seat on somebody else’s deck ahead of hiking shoes on the packing list. Fishing, … Read more
