| About Florida
- Florida is a Southern state in the United States.
It is known as the Sunshine State. "Florida"
is a Spanish adjective which means "flowery."
It was discovered by Spanish explorers during the Easter
season, which is called Pascua Florida in Spanish. The
U.S. Postal abbreviation is FL.
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Living in Florida
People of Florida - As of 2004, the
state's population was estimated to be 17,397,161.
Blacks, who during the cotton and sugar plantation
era made up fully 50 percent of the state's population,
have a large presence in the deeply southern middle
Florida region of North Florida and in the cities of
Jacksonville, Gainesville, and Fort Lauderdale. Transplanted
Northerners are prominent on the West Coast, particularly
in the Tampa suburbs. Floridians of British ancestry
are dominant in most coastal cities, while Floridians
of American ancestry dominate the culturally Southern
areas of inland North Florida. Florida's large and diverse
Hispanic community consists particularly of Cubans in
Miami and Tampa, Puerto Ricans in Tampa and Orlando,
and Mexican migrant workers in inland West-Central and
South Florida. There is also a number of Haitian Americans
in Miami and other parts of Florida.
Native Floridians who have descended from long-time
Florida families are affectionately referred to as "Crackers."
This is because many early settlers were cattle farmers,
and used bullwhips to "crack" over the cattle
to move them.
Florida is one of the only states in which Hispanics
predominantly vote Republican. This descrepancy arises
because people classified as "Hispanic" come
from widely diverse backgrounds. People whose race is
identified as "Hispanic" in Florida are mostly
of Cuban descent, as opposed to Mexican descent (who
live largely in the southwest of the U.S.) or Puerto
Rican descent (who live largely in the northeast of
the U.S.). Florida's fast-growing Hispanic population
is heaviest in Miami, Central Florida, and the Gulf
Coast. Black Floridians are overwhelmingly Democratic
voters. Blacks comprise a large fraction of the populations
of North Florida, Fort Lauderdale, and the Tampa Bay
Area.
Race and Ancestry
White 65.4%
Hispanic 16.8%
Black 14.6%
Asian 1.7%
Native American 0.3%
Mixed Race 2.4%
Climate of Florida
The climate of Florida is tempered somewhat by its
proximity to water. Most of the state has a humid subtropical
climate with the extreme tip of Florida and the Florida
Keys bordering on a true tropical climate. However,
Florida averages 300 days of full sunshine a year. The
seasons in Florida often called "Hot and Hotter"
are actually determined more by precipitation than by
temperature with warm, relatively dry winters and autumns
(the dry season) and hot, wet springs and especially
the summers (the wet season). The Gulf Stream has a
moderating effect on Florida climate and although it
is common for much of Florida to see a high summer temperature
over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, it is not common for the
mercury to go above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Florida.
The hottest temperature ever recorded in the state was
109 °F set on June 29, 1931 in Monticello. The coldest
was 2 °F below zero, on February 13, 1899 just 25
miles away, in Tallahassee. Mean high temperatures for
late July are primarily in the low 90's. Mean low temperatures
for late January range from the low 40's in North Florida
to the mid-50's in South Florida.
Although some storms have formed out of season, hurricanes
pose a threat during hurricane season, which is from
June 1 to November 30. Florida saw a slew of destruction
in 2004 when it was hit by a record four hurricanes.
Hurricanes Charley (August 13), Frances (September 4-5),
Ivan (September 16), and Jeanne (September 25-26) cumulatively
cost forty-two billion dollars to the state. In 2005,
Hurricane Dennis (July 10) became the fifth storm to
strike Florida within 11 months. Later, Hurricane Katrina
(August 25) passed through South Florida and Hurricane
Rita (September 20) swept through the Florida Keys.
Hurricane Wilma made landfall in Florida in the early
morning of October 24 as a category 3 hurricane, with
storm's eye hitting near Cape Romano, just south of
Marco Island, according to National Hurricane Center.
Florida Economy
Historically, Florida's economy was based upon cattle
farming and agriculture (especially sugar cane, citrus,
tomatoes, and strawberries). As land speculators discovered
Florida in the early 1900's, and when Plant and Flagler
developed the railway systems, more people moved in,
drawn by the usually good weather. From then on, tourism
boomed, fueling a cycle of development and tourism that
overwhelmed a great deal of farmland.
Other key industries, commercial fishing and water-based
tourist activities (sports fishing and diving) are threatened
by severe Red Tide outbreaks in 2004 and 2005 off the
west coast.
 Moving
to Florida? More info about Florida area's:
Alachua |
Apopka |
Atlantic Beach |
Boca Raton |
Bonita Springs |
Bradenton |
Brandon |
Cape Coral |
Clearwater |
Cocoa |
Crawfordville |
Daytona Beach |
Defuniak Springs |
Deltona |
Dunnellon |
Fort Lauderdale |
Fort Myers |
Fort Pierce |
Fort Walton Beach |
Gainesville |
Hialeah |
Hollywood |
Immokalee |
Inverness |
Jacksonville |
Keystone Heights |
Kissimmee |
Lake City |
Lakeland |
Largo |
Leesburg |
Marianna |
Melbourne |
Miami |
Miami Beach |
Milton |
Naples |
New Port Richey |
Ocala |
Orange Park |
Orlando |
Ormond Beach |
Palm Bay |
Palm Harbor |
Panama City |
Pensacola |
Plant City |
Pompano Beach |
Port Charlotte |
Port Saint Lucie |
Quincy |
Saint Augustine |
Saint Cloud |
Saint Petersburg |
Sarasota |
Sebring |
Spring Hill |
Stuart |
Tallahassee |
Tampa |
Valrico |
Venice |
Vero Beach |
West Palm Beach |
Winter Haven |
Winter Park |
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