ORLANDO, Fla. — Meteorological winter (December through February) finished wetter and warmer than average in Central Florida.

Of the four main weather observation stations, three experienced one of their top 10 warmest winters on record. All four of the main observation sites finished much wetter than average (the four main observation stations include Orlando, Daytona Beach, Melbourne, and Sanford).

Melbourne felt its seventh warmest winter on record with an average temperature of 66.1 degrees. This was just behind 2016-2017, which was the sixth warmest on record with an average temperature that season of 66.9 degrees.

Winter 2017-18 was the second warmest on record in Melbourne with an average temperature of 67.5 degrees.

Daytona Beach experienced its 10th warmest on record with an average temperature of 63.1 degrees. This season tied with the winter of 2012 -13. 2016-2017 was the fifth warmest on record with an average temperature of 64.3 degrees.

Winter 2018-19 in Sanford went down as the ninth warmest on record. The average temperature this season was 64.2 degrees. This winter season just eclipsed last years by a tenth of a degree. The winter of 2016-17 was the second warmest winter on record in Sanford.

Orlando finished warmer than average for winter with a temperature of 65.0 degrees. This finished slightly above last winter when the average winter season temperature was 64.7 degrees for the 16th warmest on record.

Temperatures ended up much warmer than average despite regular shots of cooler air behind cold fronts during the month of January. The winter season was largely dominated by strong ridges of high pressure that kept the warmer than average temperatures and near record highs in place for most of the winter especially during February.

The cold fronts that did roll through Central Florida during December and January were powerful at times and produced heavy rain. This led to wetter than average conditions for most of Central Florida after an abnormally dry fall season.

Orlando’s winter season was the wettest since 2009-10 when 13.27 inches of rain fell that season. This winter more than 12 inches of rain fell, which was 165 percent of normal for winter.

Sanford had its ninth wettest winter season on record. Sanford picked up more than 11.5 inches of rain, which was 148 percent of average.

Melbourne desperately needed the rain after falling into severe drought conditions in portions of Brevard County. Melbourne picked up just under 10 inches of rain. That is 135 percent of normal rainfall from December through February.

Drought conditions improved in Brevard County after a wet winter. Now, only abnormally dry conditions persist over the county instead of the drought conditions that were present at the start of winter.

Daytona Beach also finished with higher rainfall than normal. More than 9 inches of rain fell and the average rainfall during the winter season is a little more than 8 inches.

Orlando

  • Winter 2018-19: 12.06”
  • Average: 7.31”
  • Percent of Normal: 165%
  • Winter 2017-2018: 2.81”

Sanford

  • Winter 2018-19: 11.53”
  • Average: 7.87”
  • Percent of Normal: 148%
  • Winter 2017-2018: 3.15”

Daytona Beach

  • Winter 2018-19: 9.68”
  • Average: 8.15”
  • Percent of Normal: 119%
  • Winter 2017-2018: 7.99”

Melbourne

  • Winter 2018-19: 9.93”
  • Average: 7.37”
  • Percent of Normal: 135%
  • Winter 2017-2018:  4.24”