Weather in Tampa in September

Shoulder season. September is shoulder season in Tampa — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. You should expect rain on 22 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

September ranks 9 of 12 in Tampa: past the worst of the year but short of November, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 22 of the month's 30 days, 5 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 83% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 14 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 5.6 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest September day reached 33.3 °C and the coldest night fell to 17.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 142 mm — roughly 77% of the month's rain in one day.

September is moderately variable: 49 mm in the driest year against 407 mm in the wettest, around an average of 184 mm. Roughly two Septembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 9.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 83%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How September sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 30.7 °C in August, 29.7 here, 27.6 in October. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: October brings 11 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in September

12.4 hours of daylight, losing 0.8 hours across the month. That is between Tampa's extremes of 13.9 and 10.4 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 19.7 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

September in Tampa versus nearby

If Tampa is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Cape Coral is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain. Jacksonville is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 6 days less rain.

So: September is a compromise. November is 39 points better and is what Tampa is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Tampa

See all twelve months in Tampa, or where else to go in September.