Climate
The climate is tropical (Köppen climate classification Aw), and the Keys are the only frost-free place in Florida. There are two main "seasons": hot, wet, and humid from about June through October, and somewhat drier and cooler weather from November through May. Many plants grow slowly or go dormant in the dry season. Some native trees are deciduous, and drop their leaves in the winter or with spring winds.
The Keys have distinctive plant and animals species, some found nowhere else in America, as the Keys define the northern extent of their ranges. The climate also allows many imported plants to thrive. Nearly any houseplant known to commerce, and most landscape plants of the South, can thrive in the Keys climate. Some exotic species which arrived as landscape plants now invade and threaten natural areas.
The native flora of the Keys is diverse, including members of both temperate families, such as red maple (Acer rubrum), slash pine (Pinus elliotti var. densa) and oaks (Quercus spp.), growing at the southern end of their ranges, and tropical families, including mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni), gumbo limbo (Bursera simaruba), stoppers (Eugenia spp.), Jamaican dogwood (Piscidia piscipula), and many others, which grow only as far north as 25 or 26 degrees north latitude.
Several plants that are popularly thought of as exemplifying Keys landscapes are in fact not native. These include coconut palm, bougainvillea, hibiscus, and papaya.
The well-known and very sour Key lime (or Mexican lime) is a naturalized species, apparently introduced from the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where it had previously been introduced from Malaysia by explorers from Spain. The tree grows vigorously and has thorns, and produces golf-ball-size yellow fruit which is particularly acidic (even in highly alkaline coral soil) and uniquely fragrant. Key lime pie gets its name from the fruit.
The Keys are also home to unique animal species, including the Key deer, protected by the National Key Deer Refuge, and the American crocodile. About 70 miles (110 km) west of Key West is Dry Tortugas National Park, one of the most isolated and therefore well-preserved in the world. The name derives from the fact that when Spanish explorers arrived no fresh water could be found, and the small hump-shaped islands look like tortoise (tortuga in Spanish) shells from a distance.
The waters surrounding the Keys are part of a protected area known as the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
| Climate data for Key West | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 90 (32) |
87 (31) |
89 (32) |
91 (33) |
93 (34) |
100 (38) |
100 (38) |
100 (38) |
97 (36) |
93 (34) |
91 (33) |
88 (31) |
100 (38) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 75.3 (24.1) |
75.9 (24.4) |
78.8 (26.0) |
81.9 (27.7) |
85.4 (29.7) |
88.1 (31.2) |
89.4 (31.9) |
89.5 (31.9) |
88.2 (31.2) |
84.7 (29.3) |
80.6 (27.0) |
76.7 (24.8) |
82.9 (28.3) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 70.3 (21.3) |
70.8 (21.6) |
73.8 (23.2) |
77.0 (25.0) |
80.7 (27.1) |
83.4 (28.6) |
84.5 (29.2) |
84.4 (29.1) |
83.4 (28.6) |
80.2 (26.8) |
76.3 (24.6) |
72.0 (22.2) |
78.1 (25.6) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 65.2 (18.4) |
65.7 (18.7) |
68.8 (20.4) |
72.1 (22.3) |
75.9 (24.4) |
78.7 (25.9) |
79.6 (26.4) |
79.2 (26.2) |
78.5 (25.8) |
75.7 (24.3) |
71.9 (22.2) |
67.3 (19.6) |
73.2 (22.9) |
| Record low °F (°C) | 41 (5) |
44 (7) |
47 (8) |
48 (9) |
56 (13) |
65 (18) |
68 (20) |
68 (20) |
64 (18) |
59 (15) |
49 (9) |
44 (7) |
41 (5) |
| Rainfall inches (mm) | 2.22 (56.4) |
1.51 (38.4) |
1.86 (47.2) |
2.06 (52.3) |
3.48 (88.4) |
4.57 (116.1) |
3.27 (83.1) |
5.40 (137.2) |
5.45 (138.4) |
4.34 (110.2) |
2.64 (67.1) |
2.14 (54.4) |
38.94 (989.1) |
| Avg. rainy days (≥ 0.01 in) | 6.5 | 5.6 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 7.6 | 11.0 | 11.7 | 14.5 | 15.6 | 10.4 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 105.6 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 251.1 | 248.6 | 310.0 | 324.0 | 341.0 | 315.0 | 325.5 | 306.9 | 270.0 | 254.2 | 231.0 | 235.6 | 3,412.9 |
| Source: NOAA (normals, 1971-2000), HKO (sun, 1961-1990), The Weather Channel (records) | |||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Florida Keys
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are layed waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere; and he who has great duties to perform, which lay claim to all his strength, has, in this respect, a very limited choice. The influence of climate upon the bodily functions ... extends so far, that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty, but also to withhold it from him altogether, so that he never even comes face to face with it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The climate of Ohio is perfect, considered as the home of an ideal republican people. Climate has much to do with national character.... A climate which permits labor out-of-doors every month in the year and which requires industry to secure comfort—to provide food, shelter, clothing, fuel, etc.—is the very climate which secures the highest civilization.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)