They aren’t even THAT close to the equator. Like I can understand Central America and South America being very warm but Florida is pretty far from those countries and the equator.
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So I’m going to openly combine /u/Glade_Runner and /u/jaa101 answers, plus a little more.
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So, first off, Florida is pretty close to the equator – it’s about the same distance from the equator as North Africa, as Baja California, or as the Middle East. Yes, the equator is farther south – but it’s close enough that, during the summer, the sun is close to overhead (the “Tropic of Cancer” – the northermost place the sun is directly overhead – is between Florida and Cuba, less than 150 miles south).
But that only explains the summers. The second reason is the amount of water around Florida. Water holds a LOT of energy – there’s enough around Florida that the heat from the summer would keep it warmer in the winter than it would be otherwise. You can contrast Arizona, which gets much colder in the winter than northern Florida, despite being the same distance from the equator – there’s no water to store heat in Arizona, there is in Florida.
The third reason is that water doesn’t stay still – ocean water is moving, always. The main rule of this is that, because of the Earth’s rotation and the Coreolis Effect (which I can explain more separately), at the equator, water flows towards the East. This means that water between Africa and the Americas flows towards the Americas, warming up as it goes; and then hits the coast of the Americas and follows the coast – up through the Carribean, some into the Gulf of Mexico, some along the “Gulf Stream” that flows up the east coast of North America. That means that the water near Florida has it’s temperature based on the temperatures at or near the equator – which means it’s warmer than it would be otherwise. Which just warms up Florida more.
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