strawberry,

Florida weather is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get.......

That about sums it up...some summers are wetter than others, some winters are cooler than others....in 1986(or 87?) it was 17 degrees in West Palm Beach and hasn't been that cold since. I saw it snow in 1977.

No two years are ever the same, we have lots of bugs, but less bugs in the winter, sometimes if we have a hard freeze, it really knocks the bugs down...but that can kill some plants

plants adapt or die....some die back in the winter, and come back in the spring others seem unaffected.

You have to know what zones the plants are rated for and watch the weather forecast. I have lots of plants that are too tropical for our weather and constantly drag them in and out to protect them from frosts (ie Orchids) or cover them. But that's the price you pay if you want to keep plants that are not rated for your zone.

Sorry to sound vague, but there are no hard fast rules. The only thing predictable about the weather is that it is unpredictable.

Cherie

Hahahaha... reminds me about that old adage of the only constant is change. *grin*

Thanks for replying. :-)

That was soo true Cherie,

"Fla. weather is like a box of Chocolates!!
You can't even count on the weather man!

And then there was Christmas eve in 1989 that it started to freeze in south Florida as the sun was going DOWN instead of coming UP.

That's another difference... sun down vs sun up. In the pacific northwest the temps don't change that much. Sure it'll get a couple degrees cooler between midnight and 6am but most of the cooling is done by a few hours after sunset. I've noticed here when I look at the 10 hour forecasts on weather.com that much of the cooling is done between midnight or so and 6am.

Also, in winter the temperatures seem to change more radically even though the highs and lows aren't as far apart. It's not unusual for a day to start chilly but end up warm. This morning we started in the 40s and ended up in the 60s - a rare treat in Portland.

ahhh Christmas 89'... here on holiday break from college in Michigan... and IT SNOWED... I was so mad I went back early LOL

I have two favorite Florida weather sayings:

1. If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.

2. We have two seasons here, summer and "the other two months of the year".

Neither are quite true but I like them anyway. In Central Florida it really is hard to predict.

Here in central Florida we have this special weather that is in between south Florida and North Florida, especially as it goes with growing certain plants. Depending on where you are at, we are just too south to grow dogwoods and wisteria well and too cold for growing many of the tropicals you can grow in south Florida. Here in our area, we have so many microclimates that exact location makes all the difference in the world. The southeast side of a large lake will be 10 degrees warmer than the northwest side of the same lake when we have our coldest, frost type nights. In the summer, when it gets hot, rain clouds start to form over the gulf or the Atlantic and then move inland to drop the rain. What time of day that starts to happen depends a lot on which way the wind is coming from. For me, I am a little closer to the west side than the east side so when the wind comes from the east, the rain will start later in the day as compared to when the wind is coming from the west. If you live in a coastal situation, you usually get less rain and usually get more when we have fronts coming in as opposed to just forming out of nowhere like we get in July and August. If you live west of I-75 and east of I-95, you are much warmer during the winter. If you live just east of I-75 and about 10 miles west of I-95, you live in an alley that when the north wind comes down and the center of high pressure sits on top of Florida, you will have below freezing temperatures, even if you live in Homestead or Naples. I could go on for a long time, but this will give you a few ideas.

LOL cycad, I think everybody has been singing strawberrygirlie the same song. In a couple of years she'll be joining the chorus. She's learning that our 'climates' are about 50 sq.ft and a 'climate zone' is about an acre.

The climate in Central Florida has driven me crazy since we moved here in '98. Last year I tried to make some sense out of it all and did some research (http://www.centralfloridagarden.com/topics/hardiness/zone_9.htm) on hardiness zones, heat zones, chilling hours - I even looked into Phenology. In the end I have to agree with the quote above, the weather here is like a box of chocolates, no one, not even the experts, knows what will happen next.
And it's the unpredictability that makes this the most challenging climate I've gardened in.

Here is a link that might be useful: centralfloridagarden.com

I don't know, I think the weather is fairly predictable, but I guess living in Florida for 50 years does help. It is all physics, but you first have to study your exact location and everything around you to determine what will happen for you in any given weather situation. In the summer you can predict when it will start raining by some of the things I already mentioned. For me, when the winds blow the moisture from the west faster, we might start to get rain about 10 am, where if they come from the east, the rain will start more like 1 to 2 pm. The cold weather is easy to figure. You can see what the weather people say and then alter that to your specific location. As an example, when there is no wind, my place is 6 degrees colder than the land a 1/4 mile away, but when there is a 2mph wind or more, my place is the exact same temperature. Watching where the center of the high pressure is and where it is going during a freeze event will tell you if it will be colder than what the weather people say, or if they will be close. Huricanes are really fairly predictable, they don't like high pressure and will do anything to stay away from HP areas. I think it is much harder for people who have come down from up north somewhere. They seem to have more uniform weather for temps. and when they get rain, it seems to be from fronts, and if they expect rain, it will either rain for a long time, or not at all. We just seem to get more abrupt weather events, but if you take the time to study the weather each day, like I have to, it really isn't very difficult.

Oh boy Christmas time 1989. We had just moved here in October from Buffalo Ny and here we are in Citrus Co Fl and having light snow and frozen pipes. Were we cursed or what.

Downtown Inverness had big beartiful Palm trees that were mostly damaged.

Out of that box of chocolate I'll take a cream center as I need everything smooth

Growing up here in Sarasota in the 50's, 60's & to mid-70's, I remember it was very rare to have wind from the east. Lots of afternoon rain in the summer. Moved back 1 year ago & greatly surprised. Do you think the Christmas '04 tsunami caused this shift? I remember the winds were very apparent in New England the following '05 summer.