Weather and Climate
Southwest Florida is in a climate zone known as sub-tropical. What this means for us is that the weather here is very moderate at all times of year. The Gulf of Mexico keeps the area cool in the summer with its gentle breezes, and keeps the area mild in the winter.
Summer
The average high temperature in the summer is approximately 90 degrees. This sounds hot, but the temperature rarely goes above 93 degrees. The nights are muggy in the summer with average lows around 72 degrees. June, July, August and September are considered the rainy months, with the vast majority of yearly rainfall happening during these four months. Quite frequently the days in these four summer months follow the same pattern. The morning starts out clear, followed by a building of fluffy clouds during the day. Then a thunderstorm starts in the early evening hours. These summer rainstorms provide the bulk of the yearly rainfall totals.
Fall, Spring, and Winter
We can lump all these seasons together. One would be hard pressed to say this region of Florida even has a winter at all. The Fall, Winter, and Spring is where the weather really shines in this blessed area. Even in the dead of our so called winter, the average daily high temperature is a perfect 73 degrees with nights dipping into the lower 50's. Freezes rarely occur in this sub-tropical region with less than a 15% chance of it happening in any given year. The winter has very little rainfall, sometimes going weeks to a month with no precipitation whatsoever. The average monthly rainfall in December, January and February is around 2 inches.
Hurricanes
Hurricanes have been getting a lot of press lately especially after Hurricane Charley struck Punta Gorda in August of 2004. There has not been a direct hurricane strike in Englewood since 1944; the next most recent storm hit the area in 1901. Both the 1944 and 1901 storms were unnamed. The hurricane season runs from the 1st of June to the 30th of November. Homes in Charlotte and Sarasota Counties are built to withstand 155mph+ winds. Our area has some of the most stringent building codes in the United States.