Hottober in Daytona Beach - Florida

Hottober in Daytona Beach - Florida.

These are the last days of the most incredible October I can remember. A commentator on local TV station called it Hottober. Daily temperature are either record high, or close to that for at least 3 weeks straight.

Yesterday's high of 89 was a tie with the record temperature in 2005. Water in the ocean is very warm, we are having a second summer, less hot and much more pleasant.

89F may sound hot, but couple degrees less than in August already feel better for us, and we enjoy it.

Right now at 6 PM on Saturday it is 83F and it feels like 88F. It is perfect. I enjoy every minute of it.

How different it feels in the spring and in the fall. When it hits 80 in the spring, it is so hot, and you feel that you are dying without the AC. And in the fall when the temperature suddenly drops to 82F, it feels cool and pleasant, and you turn off the AC and open the windows.

What surprises me is that Daytona Beach is empty when it is the best weather. Back in Russia on the Black Sea they called it a velvet season when school started and kids had to leave. There were fewer people on the beach, which meant that finally you could find where to put your foot.

Because in my native Russia they use centigrade, I do not really compare the temperatures, it is a tricky formula, and I never do it. But it would be interesitng to compare. I got the online conversion table and figured it all out.

So, in Florida average temperature for January is 69.8F. Average July temperature is 84.2F. In Moscow, where I lived last two years before emigrating to US, July average is 64.8F - less than in Florida in January. And Moscow average temperature in January is 18.5F. Sounds cold? Not really. Let me check average temperatures in Vorkuta, the place above the Arctic Circle, where we lived 14 years prior to moving to Moscow. Average July temperature is 53F. Average January is - 5.1. But cold temperatures are 9 - 10 months and annual average is 20F.

Forget about the Arctic. It is warm and green in Florida. It is a velvet season in Daytona Beach now. Come and enjoy Hottober. Are we going to have Hotember?