SWFL winters are typically warm with sunny skies & very little rain. That's why so many people love to spend time down here while a large part of the country is dealing with ice & snow. And things are shaping up very much like last year which brought above average temps & below average rainfall. The reason, La Nina is back for the second consecutive year. That means the pattern will favor warmer than normal temps & below average rainfall for our area.
Let's break that down for the Fort Myers area. The meteorological winter is considered to be December through February. The average high over those three months is 77 degrees & the average low is 56 degrees. The average temp is then 66.4 degrees during our winter. So on average, we can expect temps to be warmer than that.
Rainfall is pretty limited during the winter which is also during the "dry season"... only 6.11" total from December through February. The storm track is likely to be located well north over the Ohio Valley, missing Florida.
But this doesn't mean every day will be warm & dry. There will be cold days & there will be some wet days. La Nina years can vary. But overall, we are likely to be basking in the warm sunshine this winter while your friends & relatives up north will shivering.
