Why is Florida so much more humid than southern california, despite them both being coastal areas?

Question

Why is Florida so much more humid than southern california, despite them both being coastal areas?

In: Other

Answer 1

There are a number of reasons, all of which are kind of related and all of which feed on each other.

First, Florida is a peninsula surrounded by warm water, as that portion of the Atlantic Ocean in much warmer than the Pacific Ocean which lies off the coast of California. That warm water promotes evaporation, which means that there is a lot more moisture in the air surrounding Florida than there is off of the coast of California.

Second, Florida is indeed surrounded by water on three sides, instead of just one side like California.

Third, Florida is on the eastern edge of the continent, which means that the east to west trade winds pick up a lot of ocean moisture and carry it on to land in Florida (and the whole eastern seaboard, for that matter). California doesn’t have that, because the trade winds are carrying dry desert air from Arizona and Nevada instead of moist air from the ocean. There are more reasons as well, but those are three big ones.