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The warmest beach towns in Florida in winter are Key Largo, Hollywood, Key West and Fort Lauderdale, where January afternoons average 75.6°F to 76.2°F and the sea stays above 70°F all winter. Sanibel Island is almost as warm in the air at 75.0°F, but the nearest NOAA sensor in the Gulf reads 67.9°F in January, 5 degrees cooler than Key West, and that is the difference between swimming and wading. We travel slowly with kids, one thing a day and most of the afternoon in the water, so in winter it is the sea temperature that decides the trip. By the end you will know which of nineteen Florida beach towns are warm in each month from December to March, where the water is warm enough to swim, and what a January week costs next to March.
Air Temperature by Month in 19 Florida Beach Towns
The numbers are average daytime highs from NOAA’s monthly normals. Anything at 70°F or above is in bold, the same beach-weather line our cost index uses. January is the coolest month in every one of these towns, and February is warmer than January in every one of them.
| Town | December | January | February | March | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key Largo | 78.1°F | 76.2°F | 78.0°F | 79.7°F | Check rates |
| Hollywood | 78.0°F | 76.1°F | 77.2°F | 78.9°F | Check rates |
| Key West | 77.7°F | 75.8°F | 77.4°F | 79.6°F | Check rates |
| Fort Lauderdale | 77.7°F | 75.6°F | 77.4°F | 79.7°F | Check rates |
| Sanibel Island | 77.3°F | 75.0°F | 78.0°F | 81.1°F | Check rates |
| Fort Myers Beach | 77.3°F | 75.0°F | 78.0°F | 81.1°F | Check rates |
| Marco Island | 76.8°F | 73.9°F | 76.2°F | 78.9°F | Check rates |
| Siesta Key | 75.2°F | 72.5°F | 74.9°F | 78.2°F | Check rates |
| Sarasota | 75.2°F | 72.5°F | 74.9°F | 78.2°F | Check rates |
| Cocoa Beach | 73.9°F | 71.8°F | 74.0°F | 77.1°F | Check rates |
| St. Pete Beach | 72.2°F | 69.8°F | 72.7°F | 76.5°F | Check rates |
| Clearwater Beach | 72.2°F | 69.8°F | 72.7°F | 76.5°F | Check rates |
| Daytona Beach | 71.5°F | 69.0°F | 71.7°F | 75.5°F | Check rates |
| St. Augustine | 68.9°F | 67.5°F | 69.7°F | 74.4°F | Check rates |
| Panama City Beach | 66.5°F | 64.4°F | 67.4°F | 72.9°F | Check rates |
| St. George Island | 66.0°F | 63.7°F | 66.3°F | 70.9°F | Check rates |
| Amelia Island | 66.3°F | 63.3°F | 66.6°F | 72.2°F | Check rates |
| Destin | 65.6°F | 63.1°F | 65.8°F | 70.7°F | Check rates |
| Pensacola Beach | 65.1°F | 62.7°F | 66.4°F | 72.0°F | Check rates |
Florida is a long state. In January the gap between Key Largo at 76.2°F and Pensacola Beach at 62.7°F is 13.5 degrees. The 70-degree line runs through the middle of the state in January, between Cocoa Beach above it and St. Pete Beach, Clearwater Beach and Daytona Beach just under it.
Sea Temperature, and Why the Gulf Coast Is Cooler Than It Looks
Air temperature is what a weather app shows. The water is what the children care about, and in winter the two part company. These are the monthly averages from the NOAA sensors nearest each town, over up to seven winters of readings. A sensor sits on a pier, a harbor or a bay, not on the beach itself, so read each figure as the water near the town rather than at your towel.
| NOAA sensor | December | January | February | March | Towns it stands in for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Key, Miami (bay) | 75.7°F | 73.4°F | 75.4°F | 77.2°F | Key Largo, 48 mi Hollywood, 20 mi Fort Lauderdale, 27 mi |
| Key West (harbor) | 75.2°F | 73.0°F | 75.7°F | 78.4°F | Key West, 2 mi |
| Trident Pier, Port Canaveral (ocean pier) | 71.5°F | 68.9°F | 69.6°F | 73.7°F | Cocoa Beach, 7 mi |
| Naples pier (Gulf pier) | 71.0°F | 67.9°F | 70.2°F | 74.9°F | Marco Island, 14 mi Sanibel Island, 29 mi Fort Myers Beach, 24 mi |
| Venice pier (Gulf pier) | 68.5°F | 65.7°F | 67.1°F | 72.8°F | Siesta Key, 15 mi Sarasota, 19 mi |
| Clearwater Beach (Gulf-side marina) | 67.6°F | 64.1°F | 66.8°F | 73.2°F | St. Pete Beach, 18 mi Clearwater Beach, 0 mi |
| St. Augustine (ocean) | 64.3°F | 61.1°F | 60.3°F | 64.5°F | Daytona Beach, 47 mi St. Augustine, 4 mi |
| Panama City Beach (Gulf pier) | 64.0°F | 60.5°F | 61.8°F | 67.0°F | Destin, 39 mi Panama City Beach, 5 mi |
| Fernandina Beach (harbor) | 61.0°F | 57.8°F | 59.5°F | 64.8°F | Amelia Island, 0 mi |
| Pensacola (bay) | 61.4°F | 57.6°F | 60.3°F | 68.0°F | Pensacola Beach, 6 mi |
| Apalachicola (bay) | 60.4°F | 56.5°F | 59.9°F | 66.4°F | St. George Island, 9 mi |
Sanibel Island and Key West are 0.8 degrees apart in the January air and 5.1 degrees apart in the January sea. The Gulf off southwest Florida is shallow and shelves out for miles, so a cold front chills it quickly, while the Keys and the southeast coast sit next to deep water that stays warm. The same pattern holds further north. Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic and Clearwater Beach on the Gulf sit at almost the same latitude, and the Atlantic sensor near Cocoa Beach averages 68.9°F in January against 64.1°F at Clearwater Beach.
The Keys and the Southeast Coast
Key Largo, Hollywood, Key West and Fort Lauderdale are the only towns on this list where both numbers clear 70°F in every winter month. January afternoons run 75.6°F to 76.2°F. The water at Key West averages 73.0°F in January, and the sensor at Virginia Key, Miami, the nearest long-running one to Key Largo, Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, averages 73.4°F.
The trade is price and pace. Key West is the most expensive Florida town we price for the last week of January at $387 a night for a median three-star room, and Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood are big-city beaches with crowds to match. For a slower week, Key Largo is a quieter base than Key West, and Hollywood’s Broadwalk is flat, car-free and built for a stroller.
The Southwest Gulf Coast
Sanibel Island, Fort Myers Beach, Marco Island, Siesta Key and Sarasota all clear 70°F in the January air, at 72.5°F to 75.0°F. None of them has water that warm. The Naples pier sensor averages 67.9°F in January and the Venice pier 65.7°F. These towns give a warm winter afternoon on the sand and calm, shallow water to paddle in, and the most honest description of January swimming here is brief.
By March the picture changes. The air near Sanibel Island averages 81.1°F, the warmest March figure on this list, and the Naples pier is up to 74.9°F, close enough to the line that a warm March week here is a swimming week. Our list of beach towns with calm water for toddlers covers this coast in detail.
The Middle of the State
Cocoa Beach, St. Pete Beach, Clearwater Beach and Daytona Beach are where the 70-degree line crosses Florida. In January Cocoa Beach averages 71.8°F, while St. Pete Beach sits at 69.8°F, Clearwater Beach sits at 69.8°F and Daytona Beach sits at 69.0°F. The water near every one of them is below 70°F in January and February, 61.1°F to 68.9°F in January.
These towns are a better December or March trip than a January one. In March all four clear 70°F in the air, and Cocoa Beach, with the Kennedy Space Center half an hour away, has a winter day out that does not depend on the weather.
North Florida and the Panhandle
St. Augustine, Panama City Beach, St. George Island, Amelia Island, Destin and Pensacola Beach stay below 70°F in the air from December through February, at 62.7°F to 67.5°F in January, and the sea near every one of them stays below 70°F into March. The Atlantic off St. Augustine is actually colder in February (60.3°F) than in January (61.1°F), because the ocean lags the air by weeks. This is the Florida of long walks on empty sand, lighthouses and seafood, and it is priced like it. Destin is the lowest January rate we hold in Florida at $93 a night.
By March all six reach 70°F in the air, while the sea near every one of them is still below it. That makes March a good month here for walking, biking and the white sand, and a poor one for swimming.
Month by Month, the Short Answer
December
Thirteen of nineteen towns average 70°F or better in the air, led by Key Largo at 78.1°F. The sea is 70°F or warmer near Key Largo, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Key West, Cocoa Beach, Marco Island, Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach. Our December list compares these towns with the rest of the US coast.
January
Ten of nineteen towns average 70°F or better in the air, led by Key Largo at 76.2°F. The sea is 70°F or warmer near Key Largo, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and Key West.
February
Thirteen of nineteen towns average 70°F or better in the air, led by Key Largo at 78.0°F. The sea is 70°F or warmer near Key West, Key Largo, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Marco Island, Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach.
March
All nineteen towns average 70°F or better in the air, led by Sanibel Island at 81.1°F. The sea is 70°F or warmer near Key West, Key Largo, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Marco Island, Sanibel Island, Fort Myers Beach, Cocoa Beach, St. Pete Beach, Clearwater Beach, Siesta Key and Sarasota.
What a Winter Week Costs, January Against March
We price a late-January week and a mid-March week with the same method, and six of these towns have enough three-star rates in both to publish a median. March costs more in five of them. Daytona Beach is the exception, lower in March than in late January.
| Town | January 23 to 30 | March 13 to 20 | Change | January air / sea |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key West | $387 a night | $437 a night | +$50 | 76°F / 73°F |
| Sanibel Island | $338 a night | $449 a night | +$111 | 75°F / 68°F |
| Clearwater Beach | $254 a night | $351 a night | +$97 | 70°F / 64°F |
| Daytona Beach | $218 a night | $176 a night | −$42 | 69°F / 61°F |
| Amelia Island | $144 a night | $189 a night | +$45 | 63°F / 58°F |
| Destin | $93 a night | $169 a night | +$76 | 63°F / 61°F |
Key West goes from $387 to $437 a night and Sanibel Island from $338 to $449. In the towns that are warm in winter, winter is the high season, and March adds spring break on top of it. In late January the warm-air towns we price run 2.3 to 4.2 times the north Florida rates, which is the price of the weather. For the rest of the state, our ranking of Florida beach towns for families covers the summer week, when all of them are warm.
What These Numbers Cannot Tell You
Averages hide cold fronts. A front can pull a Florida afternoon well below these figures for a day or two, even in the south, and the shallow Gulf water drops with it. The averages tell you which towns give you the best odds, not what any single week will do.
The sea figures come from sensors on piers, harbors and bays, some of them tens of miles from the town they stand in for, and the table says which and how far. A bay sensor usually reads cooler than the open beach in winter. Treat each figure as a fair comparison between towns rather than a reading at the water’s edge.
Nine towns have no NOAA-cited weather station of their own and read from the nearest official one. Sanibel Island uses Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach uses Fort Myers, Siesta Key uses Sarasota, St. Pete Beach uses St. Petersburg, Clearwater Beach uses St. Petersburg, Cocoa Beach uses Melbourne, Panama City Beach uses Panama City, Pensacola Beach uses Pensacola and St. George Island uses Apalachicola. Prices exist for only six of the nineteen towns, and Sanibel Island and Amelia Island rest on only a handful of three-star rates.
Warmth is one filter of several. If getting around without a car matters more, our walkable beach towns list sorts the coast that way.
How We Got These Numbers
Air temperatures are NOAA monthly normals as published in each town’s Wikipedia weather box, and we only accepted a box that cites NOAA or the National Weather Service. Where a town has no such station, the nearest official one stands in, and the section above names each one.
Sea temperatures are from the NOAA National Data Buoy Center’s historical records for each sensor, December through March of the winters 2019 to 2025. We averaged each month of each year, dropped any month with less than half its hours recorded, and then averaged those monthly figures so a year with more readings does not count for more.
Prices are 157 three-star nightly rates collected from Booking.com for January 23 to 30 and March 13 to 20, 2027, for two adults, with vacation rentals removed. We publish the median rather than the average so one resort cannot drag a town upward. The full four-week picture is in the cost index.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the warmest beach in Florida in winter?
The Keys and the southeast coast. Key Largo (76.2°F), Hollywood (76.1°F), Key West (75.8°F) and Fort Lauderdale (75.6°F) have the warmest January afternoons in the state, and the sea near them averages 73.0°F to 73.4°F that month. They are the only towns on our list where both the air and the water stay above 70°F from December through March.
What is the warmest beach in Florida in December?
Key Largo at an average December high of 78.1°F, followed by Hollywood at 78.0°F, Key West at 77.7°F and Fort Lauderdale at 77.7°F. Thirteen of our nineteen Florida towns clear 70°F in December.
What is the warmest beach in Florida in January?
Key Largo at 76.2°F, with Hollywood at 76.1°F, Key West at 75.8°F and Fort Lauderdale at 75.6°F. January is the coolest month in every Florida beach town we track, and only the Keys and the southeast coast keep the water above 70°F.
What is the warmest beach in Florida in February?
Key Largo at 78.0°F, with Sanibel Island at 78.0°F, Fort Myers Beach at 78.0°F and Key West at 77.4°F. Every town on our list is warmer in February than in January, and thirteen of nineteen clear 70°F.
What is the warmest beach in Florida in March?
Sanibel Island at 81.1°F in the air, the warmest March figure we hold, with Fort Myers Beach at 81.1°F, Key Largo at 79.7°F and Fort Lauderdale at 79.7°F. By March nineteen of nineteen towns clear 70°F, and the sea reaches 70°F near twelve of them.
Is the water warm enough to swim in Florida in winter?
In the Keys and on the southeast coast, yes, at 73.0°F to 73.4°F in January. On the Gulf coast the water runs 65.7°F to 67.9°F in the southwest and colder further north, which most children find too cold for more than a quick dip. North Florida and the Panhandle sit 56.5°F to 61.1°F in January.
Is the Gulf or the Atlantic side of Florida warmer in winter?
The air is similar at the same latitude, and the Atlantic side is usually warmer in the water. Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic averages 68.9°F in the January sea against 64.1°F at Clearwater Beach on the Gulf, because the shallow Gulf shelf cools faster when a front comes through.
Is Florida less expensive in January or March?
January, in five of the six towns we price. Key West is $387 a night in late January and $437 in mid-March. Daytona Beach is the exception at $218 in January and $176 in March.