Climate of the Tampa Bay Area - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tampa Bay Area

The Tampa Bay Area is the region of west central Florida adjacent to Tampa Bay. Definitions of the region vary. It is often considered equivalent to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area defined by the United States Census Bureau. The Census Bureau currently...

has a humid subtropical climate

Humid subtropical climate

A humid subtropical climate is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters...

(Koppen Cfa), with warm and humid summer

Summer

Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice...

s with frequent thunderstorm

Thunderstorm

A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...

s and drier winter

Winter

Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...

s with freezing temperatures occurring every 2–3 years. The area experiences a significant summer wet season

Wet season

The the wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the...

, as nearly two-thirds of the annual precipitation

Precipitation (meteorology)

In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...

falls in the months of June through September. The area is listed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

United States Department of Agriculture

The United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...

as being in hardiness zone 10, which is about the northern limit of where coconut palms and royal palms can be grown. Highs usually range between 65 and 95 °F

Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...

(18 and 35 °C

Celsius

Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...

) year round. Though known for hot summers, Tampa's

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

official high has never reached 100 °F (38 °C) – the city's all-time record temperature is 99 °F (37 °C). St. Petersburg's

St. Petersburg, Florida

St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...

all-time record high is exactly 100 °F (38 °C).

Pinellas County

Pinellas County, Florida

Pinellas County is a county located in the state of Florida. Its county seat is Clearwater, Florida, and its largest city is St. Petersburg. This county is contained entirely within the telephone area code 727, except for some sections of Oldsmar, which have the area code 813...

lies on a peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

between Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...

and the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

, and much of the city of Tampa lies on a smaller peninsula jutting out into Tampa Bay. This proximity to large bodies of water both moderates temperatures and introduces large amounts of humidity

Humidity

Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...

into the atmosphere. In general, the local communities farthest from the coast have larger temperature ranges, both during a single day and throughout the seasons of the year.

Seasonal weather

Spring

Spring in the Tampa area is usually mild and dry, with highs in the 70s (around 25 C) and lows in the 50s (around 13 C). However, the calm is occasionally disturbed by the arrival of late-season cold fronts. The clash of a strong cold front against warm and humid local air can cause squall lines to develop and cause wind damage across the area. The most dramatic example of this was the Storm of the Century in 1993, but other smaller-scale events (such as the brief but intense squall which caused a freighter

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

to strike and partially collapse the original Sunshine Skyway bridge in May 1980) occur every few years.

Summer

Temperatures are hot from around mid-May through mid-October, which coincides approximately with the rainy season. Summertime weather is very consistent, with highs in the low 90s °F (around 32 °C), lows in the mid-70s °F (around 24 °C), accompanied by high humidity

Humidity

and an almost daily chance of afternoon thundershowers

Thunderstorm

.

The typical summer weather pattern is for heat-produced thermals, powered by either the Gulf or Atlantic

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

sea breeze

Sea breeze

A sea-breeze is a wind from the sea that develops over land near coasts. It is formed by increasing temperature differences between the land and water; these create a pressure minimum over the land due to its relative warmth, and forces higher pressure, cooler air from the sea to move inland...

(and occasionally both simultaneously), to build puffy white cumulus cloud

Cumulus cloud

Cumulus clouds are a type of cloud with noticeable vertical development and clearly defined edges. Cumulus means "heap" or "pile" in Latin. They are often described as "puffy" or "cotton-like" in appearance. Cumulus clouds may appear alone, in lines, or in clusters...

s into threatening thunderheads over the interior of the Florida peninsula. Usually, the resulting storms drift slowly westward to the bay area, though they may rain themselves out before reaching Tampa if the easterly winds are light or the sea breeze

Sea breeze

from the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

is too strong. Occasionally, the storms survive to move out over the Gulf of Mexico, where they can be seen at night from the beaches as spectacular light shows. Nighttime storms offshore are driven by the land-breeze front which is the dermal counterpart of the daytime sea-breeze front.

The afternoon storms typically bring brief periods of heavy rain

Rain

Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...

with frequent cloud-to-ground lightning

Lightning

Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

, and are usually followed by a pleasantly clear and cooler evening. At times, they can grow severe, bringing gusty winds, small hail

Hail

Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...

, and torrential rain, and an occasional tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...

. While Florida does rank #1 in the USA in terms of tornadoes per square mile, the majority of the twisters are small, weak, and short-lived. Waterspout

Waterspout

A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water. While it is often weaker than most of its land counterparts, stronger versions spawned by mesocyclones do occur...

s are relatively common in Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay

and off the gulf coast during strong summer thunderstorms, occasionally moving onshore as a short-lived tornado.

Though the Tampa Bay area is sometimes referred to as the "Lightning Capital of the World", it is more accurately called the “Lightning Capital of North America” if measured by average number of days with thunderstorm

Thunderstorm

activity per year. During the summer, west-central Florida receives as much lightning as the world’s true lightning leaders such as the Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to discover this lake....

region of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

and the central Amazon River Basin. However, there are few thunderstorms in the Tampa Bay area from approximately October to May, decreasing the yearly average.

Every year, Florida averages 10 deaths and 30 injuries from lightning strikes, with several of these usually occurring in or around Tampa. University of Florida

University of Florida

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...

lightning expert Martin A. Uman

Martin A. Uman

Martin Allan Uman is an American engineer. He has been acknowledged by the American Geophysical Union as one of the world's leading authorities on lightning....

has calculated that the average resident is within a half-mile of 10 to 15 lightning strikes every year. TECO Energy, the local electric utility, spends over USD $1,000,000 annually to repair transformer

Transformer

A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...

s and other equipment damaged by lightning strikes.

Autumn

Both temperature

Temperature

Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...

and rainfall

Precipitation (meteorology)

start a downward trend in early to mid-October as the weather in Tampa turns drier and calm. However, the hurricane season extends until the end of November, and the area is sometimes affected by a hurricane or tropical storm during the fall.

Winter

Winters in the Tampa Bay Area are generally dry and mild; highs during the season average near 70 °F (21.1 °C) with mostly sunny skies. The occasional passage of a cold front

Cold front

A cold front is defined as the leading edge of a cooler mass of air, replacing a warmer mass of air.-Development of cold front:The cooler and denser air wedges under the less-dense warmer air, lifting it...

will bring rain followed by a few days of cooler temperatures. Lows rarely drop below freezing 32 °F (0 °C), an occurrence which happens, on average, once every other year. While deep freezes are very infrequent, serious cold snaps are a significant concern due to the diverse range of freeze-sensitive agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

and aquaculture

Aquaculture

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...

industries in the area.

Frozen precipitation is very rare in the area. In the Great Blizzard of 1899

Great Blizzard of 1899

The Great Blizzard of 1899 was an unprecedented winter weather event that affected the southern United States. What made it historic was both the severity of winter weather and the extent of the U.S. it affected, especially in the South. The first reports indicated record-high barometric pressure...

, Tampa suffered its one and only known blizzard

Blizzard

A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...

, with "bay effect" snow

Lake effect snow

Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when cold winds move across long expanses of warmer lake water, providing energy and picking up water vapor which freezes and is deposited on the leeward shores...

coming off Tampa Bay.

The last officially measurable snow in Tampa fell on January 19, 1977. While the accumulation amounted to less than 0.5 inches (12.7 mm), the area is quite unaccustomed to and unprepared for frozen precipitation, so various schools, businesses, and roads closed, at least until the snow melted away that afternoon. Many residents of southern Pinellas County reported a light snowfall on December 23, 1989. However, no snow fell at official weather stations, and the weather record indicates that sleet

Ice pellets

Ice pellets are a form of precipitation consisting of small, translucent balls of ice. Ice pellets usually are smaller than hailstones. They often bounce when they hit the ground, and generally do not freeze into a solid mass unless mixed with freezing rain...

fell on St. Petersburg that day.

The winter of 2009-2010 was one of the coldest in local history. Both Tampa and St. Petersburg set records for consecutive days in which the high temperature did not reach 60 °F (15.6 °C) degrees, and Tampa experienced ten consecutive days with a low temperature below freezing. Much of the area received a "wintry mix" of rain, sleet, and possibly a few snowflakes on January 9–10.

Tampa's all-time record low temperature is 18 °F (-7.8 °C) and St. Petersburg's is 22 °F (-5.6 °C), both occurring during the same cold snap on December 13, 1962.

Precipitation and sunshine trends

Due to the frequent summer thunderstorm

Thunderstorm

s, Tampa has a pronounced wet season

Wet season

, receiving an average total of 28 inches (711.2 mm) of rain from June and September but only about 18 inches (457.2 mm) during the remaining eight months of the year combined. The historical averages during the late summer, especially September, are augmented by tropical cyclone

Tropical cyclone

A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...

s, which can easily deposit many inches of rain in one day. Outside of the summer rainy season, most of the area's precipitation is delivered by the occasional passage of a weather front

Weather front

A weather front is a boundary separating two masses of air of different densities, and is the principal cause of meteorological phenomena. In surface weather analyses, fronts are depicted using various colored lines and symbols, depending on the type of front...

.

Tampa's precipitation

Precipitation (meteorology)

data falls near the median for the area. Nearby communities to the interior tend to receive a bit more rain every year; those closer to the coast a bit less.

The area receives plentiful sunshine throughout the year, averaging a total of 2920 hours, or 66.7% of the possible total. The daily sunshine amount is highest in May, when the sun's angle of incidence

Effect of sun angle on climate

The amount of heat energy received at any location on the globe is a direct effect of sun angle on climate, as the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth varies by location, time of day, and season due to the Earth's orbit around the sun and the Earth's rotation around its tilted axis...

has increased the hours of daylight and the rainy season has not yet begun.

Tropical systems

June through November is hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

and Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

, with the most tropical activity occurring between mid-August to mid-October. Rain

Rain

dropped by tropical systems

Tropical cyclone

is an important component of the area's annual precipitation

Precipitation (meteorology)

and is vital for replenishing the water supply of communities around Tampa Bay.

The area feels some effect from passing tropical systems almost every year, but direct hits

Landfall (meteorology)

Landfall is the event of a tropical cyclone or a waterspout coming onto land after being over water. When a waterspout makes landfall it is reclassified as a tornado, which can then cause damage inland...

are uncommon. Estimates of the probability of a hurricane making landfall in the Tampa Bay area during any given year range from 1 in 25 to 1 in 50. While the historical record has shown that the area is vulnerable to a large storm (such as the Great Gale of 1848

Great Gale of 1848

The Great Gale of 1848, also known as the Tampa Bay hurricane of 1848 and originally as the Great Gale of '48, was a tropical cyclone that struck Florida in September 1848. It affected the Tampa Bay Area September 23–25, 1848. It crossed the Florida Peninsula to cause damage on the east coast on or...

), Tampa Bay has not seen the landfall of any hurricane since 1946, and has not taken a hit from a major hurricane since 1921

Tampa Bay Hurricane of 1921

The Tampa Bay Hurricane of 1921 was the third hurricane, second major hurricane, and final storm of an inactive 1921 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the first hurricane to directly make landfall in Tampa Bay, Florida and one of several notable hurricanes to make landfall in Florida...

The 2004 Tropical Season

The 2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season

2004 Atlantic hurricane season

The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 2004, and lasted until November 30, 2004. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin...

was historically busy for the Tampa Bay area. The region was affected by a record four hurricanes that year; Frances

Hurricane Frances

Hurricane Frances was the sixth named storm, the fourth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. The system crossing the open Atlantic during mid to late August, moving to the north of the Lesser Antilles while strengthening. Its outer bands affected Puerto...

, Jeanne

Hurricane Jeanne

Hurricane Jeanne was the deadliest hurricane in the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the tenth named storm, the seventh hurricane, and the fifth major hurricane of the season, as well as the third hurricane and fourth named storm of the season to make landfall in Florida...

, Charley

Hurricane Charley

Hurricane Charley was the third named storm, the second hurricane, and the second major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Charley lasted from August 9 to August 15, and at its peak intensity it attained 150 mph winds, making it a strong Category 4 hurricane on the...

, and to a lesser extent, Ivan

Hurricane Ivan

Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde-type hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlantic hurricane season...

. Jeanne and Frances passed over Tampa as tropical storms after making their way across the state from the east coast. Charley was forecast to make a direct hit on Tampa Bay from the south-southwest, which would have been the worst-case scenario for local storm surge

Storm surge

A storm surge is an offshore rise of water associated with a low pressure weather system, typically tropical cyclones and strong extratropical cyclones. Storm surges are caused primarily by high winds pushing on the ocean's surface. The wind causes the water to pile up higher than the ordinary sea...

flooding. But the storm made a sudden and unexpected turn to the northeast and brought only tropical storm force winds to the region, devastating the Ft. Myers

Fort Myers, Florida

Fort Myers is the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. Its population was 62,298 in the 2010 census, a 29.23 percent increase over the 2000 figure....

/Port Charlotte

Port Charlotte, Florida

Port Charlotte is a census-designated place in Charlotte County, Florida, United States. The population was 46,451 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Punta Gorda Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

area instead. Ivan also threatened the area as it moved north up the eastern Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

. It remained far to the west of central Florida, however, and brought only a bit of rain and wind to Tampa Bay before eventually slamming into coastal Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

and the Florida Panhandle

Florida Panhandle

The Florida Panhandle, an informal, unofficial term for the northwestern part of Florida, is a strip of land roughly 200 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide , lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia also on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is...

Tampa and St. Petersburg climate summaries

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