Sarcasm? our neighborhood turns into a ghost town in June. Everybody leaves to get out of the heat. Play golf with 20-24 guys in January. Hard to get 4-8 guys during the summer.

I moved here six years ago
In November. My first New Year’s Eve had temps in the 20’s! This is central Florida. Expect temps to drop sometimes in the winter months but also expect a roller coaster ride. It might be 30’s one day and 70-80 the next. Also prepare for cold mornings, warm afternoons and cool nights. Once March rolls around the humidity and heat starts and will last through late September.

Go South
 

As a native i moved up here from the Ft. Lauderdale area. This area is known as “South Georgia” - real Florida starts around the West Palm Beach area. Here it’s cool/sometimes cold in the winter & crazy hot in the summer. But, less traffic, less hassles & more to do for seniors. You learn to adapt by leaving on the summer & waiting a day or two for the weather to change in the winter!

We too moved here 14 yrs ago from the Midwest. It was 2009 and that winter was just like it is lately....cold. A friend we knew, who had a place here intimated we wouldn't need winter clothes....so I believed her and got rid of most of my warm things. MISTAKE!!! Yes, Dec., Jan. and Feb. can be unusual. We're in Central Fl.---watch the weather news and you'll get the information. Florida used to be full of orange groves---they "might" have disappeared due to the growth of people coming for the weather BUT in the '80's a bad cold snap with frost affected the growers because they lost so many trees. Yes, it does get chilly here but it won't last. Many times if you bundle up and get busy outside, eventually as the sun will be too warm for the jacket and you'll shed it. I remember laughing at a person at one of our pools who'd said our blood gets "thinner" once we've lived here a couple of years. They were correct. Florida is much better than up north---even in the summer months when the heat/humidity hit. I hope to never move back to the frozen tundra with it's snow/ice etc.
Since living here....we're so glad we don't live on either coast that seem to be affected most by the storms. Also the panhandle gets much harsher weather than here---even a bit of snow (it doesn't last). We think Central FL is the best place. You will find our weather (even the rain etc) is different than up north. It "might" rain in your neighborhood (or it won't) when other places get drenched. Yes, be aware but it won't last.

February 2023
 

This past February 2023 we had 16 days above 80 and the rest in the mid to upper 70's and only one day had a high of 64. One day in mid February it was near 90 degrees. Check weather.com monthly February 2023. Weather can vary a lot from year to year.

We came from Edwardsville, Illinois (near St. Louis). I talked my husband into this gig by promising him that Florida would be a warm and toasty place!

Right now, temperatures in The Villages and Edwardsville are somewhat similar.

Is this typical weather here? Or an anomaly?[/QUOTE]

Did you leave the door open when you came down? :)

Typical for "north central" Florida. If one is looking for warm temps for say 360 days per year....you would need to head down South Florida. We moved up here after over 25 years in South Florida. On many occasions there can be a 15 to 20 degree difference on the "colder" side. For example, as I type this it's 53 in TV and 69 in Coral Springs where we came up from.

Wow. Have not seen any snow here, but have seen hail twice.

Definitely have had to cover some outside plants, as the temps dipped below 20 at night too many times.

Yes indeed, central Florida is not that warm in the winter. Pockets of cold that can last for a night or two, or a week.

I have been here three years and used to live just down the road from you in Highland, IL and believe me the winters are SO MUCH BETTER! This is just a temporary cold snap. Like when it would occasionally get to ZERO back home.

Ahhhh, but try to buy a snow shovel here....... I don't love this cold, but at least its not snowing...... and won't.

Weather
 

It is winter and it gets cold a few days, then back to 70's. December to February is like fall weather. Other 9 months is summer. Enjoy! We're from New England so this is awesome . No snow or ice.

Won’t have wait for July it will be plenty warm by March 1st.

What I have found it feels colder when cool and hotter when hot. It can get well below freezing for couple days and then it warms up.

It's always good to get some crisp cooling air here, but in a few days it goes back up to normal temps of about 71 this time of year as it is today. January is the only time where you might get 2 weeks of cold, but sun and no wind makes it reasonable. Enjoy our great state!

I lived there for several years but I am originally from Virginia Beach. When I first moved to the St. Louis area, I thought that the snow was fun. Lol.

I’m enjoying my time in Florida very much and we’re busy getting our house ready for Christmas visitors but we’re also digging out our hats and mittens!

Thanks again for the lovely comments.

Hi, it is colder in North Central Florida. We are from SE Florida for over 56 years. Only 2 years here. We average 10 to even 15 degrees colder than South Florida. I check the difference daily.
In the summer, our heat index is about 7 degrees lower. Humidity always a bit lower here.

So Winters worse, summers better. However, the lightning here is serious. Consider installing a lightning rod.

P.s. no iguanas or pythons here unlike S. Fl.

Coming from 27 years in St. Pete and Sarasota, my wife and I had serious conversations about whether the Villages would be too cold for us! We're surviving it...

Typical winters in northern and central Florida include about two weeks with lows near or just below freezing. The rest of the time lows are generally in the 40’s or 50’s with highs in the 60’s or 70’s. It stays a little more constant near the coast, as the ocean moderates the temperature. As far as getting used to it, we lived in Edmonton, Alberta for a few years—people would put on the winter coats when it hit the 40’s in the fall/winter transition, then would break out the shorts and tee shirts when it hit about 35 in the spring.

The last few days are somewhat colder than usual, but are not uncommon (if that makes sense). You might want to have a sweater or light jacket handy for the mornings and evenings. My wife thinks of these days as she does of the temperatures in the air-conditioned stores and restaurants where she is always freezing!

Be thankful you have escaped from Illinois with its terrible government and outrageous taxes. Not paying a state income tax is like getting a raise. Not being controlled by the political machine in Chicago is a blessing.

If you want a break from our winter season, take a cruise out of Port Canaveral. They're cheap and convenient.

Temperatures
 

I have been in The Villages the last 11 years. The temperatures aren’t unusual for December. It sort of stays this way until March. We moved here from Miami, Fl which is a sub-tropical climate and cold days like we are having recently happen around 5 days of the winter season. It is usually in the 70s there.

Loved it in TV when temp. dropped into the 50f- 60f range.
Golf courses were near empty as the all year rounders mostly wouldn't leave their house.
I had a great pal for many years who was so proud of being an ex-Marine.
Used to bang on his door when temp. dropped, and shout, "are the Marines playing today?"
Can't put the exact reply, but it fell into the 'Go Forth and Multiply' category!
Still miss him.

I think winter this year is on a Tuesday!

As we like to say, "Jacksonville is a great place to be from"! No desire to return, but am happy we own the farm.

Cold Temps
 

We moved from San Diego to The Villages 4 years ago. Winters are better than San Diego, summers are worse, fall and spring are about equal. The Villages beats the cost of living in San Diego hands down. When we moved here in October, the air conditioner ran every day. We held our breaths and waited for the electric bill. In San Diego with the thermostat set to 82°, the bill could be $400. The bill was $79 and the thermostat was set at 77°!

The rule here is: layers in the winter. It may freeze at night for 3 days in a row, but the daytime temps rise to the 50°. So far, we’ve never had an ice storm here. All I’ve ever experienced is random nights of frost Dec - Feb. No more than 8 nights like that and that’s the total for Dec. ‘22 - Feb. ‘23. (I pay attention because I have some plants that hate frost. Right now the pineapples are in our enclosed lanai. They don’t like 50°. BTW, try growing pineapples from the cut off tops of store bought fruit in Illinois.)

Run heater in morning and a/c in the afternoon in car. That's typical for winter in Florida. Been here since May 1953. We got to Miami and expected to see palm trees like on post cards showing the coconut palms. They don't grow this far north.

If it’s that warm in Illinois in December then that’s the anomaly and not mid-central Florida in the winter!

Very much depends upon what activities you like to do. If you imagined that you'd be sitting by a swimming pool everyday in December-March, you'd be disappointed in the weather in Central Florida.
However, if you play pickleball, the cooler weather is a blessing.

Many times I've left the house on a "cold" morning for a walk, only to realize after a few blocks of warming up that I was a tad overdressed.

It seems like there aren't more than a handful of days through the winter months here that are just so miserable I wouldn't go out even for a walk. In fact, when those days are forecast, I sometimes get the giddy feeling I used to get when a big snowstorm was expected up north, and a little bit of me is happy that I can get a "rest day". No golf, no pickleball, no walk. Just laze around the house and do puzzles or something.

ps. I just checked the weather in my old 'hood up north. 17F. I don't miss that a bit.

Actually they are pretty close in departure from the average. The average low in Edwardsville for December is 28F and the average low in The Villages for December is 51F. So, we were about 10F below average and Edwardsville was about 13F above average for that morning.

You Decide
 

Factual December temps for the last 4 years taken near Santo Domingo.

Thanks for the laugh this morning (though it's true) :mademyday:

Fred

We get a couple of weeks of winter in December and January. Deal with it.

Why did you promise him that? Where did you get your information that it is a "warm and toasty" place? Florida ranges between a humid subtropic, to a true tropic climate, depending on what part of the state you're in.

Central Florida is a humid sub-tropic and as such it can often get into the 40s on winter nights, and have winter days when it never leaves the upper 50's. On rare occasions, temperatures can dip below freezing but those are few and far between, and might happen one or two days out of the entire year, if at all.

These are things you'd know, if you had checked Wikipedia, or done a simple google search for Florida climate information. You can even check the Orlando wikipedia entry, which brings you a little closer (albeit an hour south of) to us for detail. You'll find that in December, January, and February, it is common to have minimum day-time temps in the low 50's. It's also common to have maximum daytime temps in the low 70's, for the same months.

Mean minimums (which would be night-time) during December, January, and February, are commonly just above freezing and don't even hit 40.

There've been extremes outside these "mean" measurements - record low of 18 in December in Orlando, and record high of 103 one September.

In general though, with the exceptions of the extreme highs and lows and seasonal changes, the greater Orlando area (including the Villages, which is just north) should expect daytime temps to range from the low 70's to the low 90's for most of the year.

No. The lowest average temperature for The Villages is in January and is 47F.

My coldest Christmas ever was last year here in TV. 24 degrees at 7:00 a.m. We had arrived here from SoCal just a month earlier. I walked outside just to experience it because growing up in SoCal I had never had a Christmas morning colder than the 50s-60s. It was definitely not what I was expecting when we moved here. My husband on the other hand grew up in MI so 24 was not new to him, but after 46 years in SoCal he definitely was no longer used to temps that low. We were at Disney for 2 nights earlier this week when temps were in the 40s, and we were both frickin’ freezing. LOL!

weather
 

Those differences give TV 2 more months of moderate weather, but we do miss the sea breezes which make SE Florida more tolerable in the summer.

We can get Frost
 

Usually a week in January we will see a couple of Nights a year into the Daybreak hours of temps between 29 and 34. By noon to 3 pm we're back into the 60's. Last year it was a 3 day morning period. This December it has been cooler than others I've experienced in my 7 years here in Florida. LOL there can be a few days each year when you will experience Winter at daybreak, Spring at 11:00 am, summer around 2 pm and fall around 6pm...It's a central Florida experience....

I've heard that this will be the coldest Christmas in Florida. I remember the past 10 years that we've been here, it's been quite nice on Christmas Day, nice enough to be riding around in the golf cart with a light jacket! Overall, I know that in LATE summer I start wishing for a cool day every once in awhile! I do feel the weather here is much nicer than many places!! (Yes, I look like I'm a eskimo but I even get chilled at times in the summer!). Enjoy

Forecast for Christmas day in TV is 73 degrees.

You might want to get another source for your news.

I picked a random year - first try - dec 25, 2020 the high was 54
It’s going to be in the 70s this year