Paifang Gate at Epcot’s China Pavil­ion — © Copy­right 2012 by William Beem

Dis­ney World Weather

Peo­ple have a fas­ci­na­tion with weather. Com­bine that with the most vis­ited vaca­tion des­ti­na­tion in the world and you can build an entire indus­try out of Dis­ney World weather fore­casts. On any given day, I can visit one of the var­i­ous mes­sage boards ded­i­cated to Dis­ney parks and some­one will want to know — very far in advance — about Dis­ney World weather. How’s the weather next March? We’re plan­ning on vis­it­ing in June — will it be hot?

Well, yes! It’s Orlando. Dis­ney World was built on unwanted swamp­land. It’s not only going to be hot in the sum­mer, but it’s also going to be muggy. You’re going to sweat, get sun­burned and suf­fer if you come here next June. The only good thing about com­ing here in June is that it isn’t July or August. Although I have an Annual Pass to Walt Dis­ney World, I just don’t use it in the sum­mer months, with the excep­tion of Star Wars Week­ends that run into the first week­ends of June. Once that’s over, I’m con­cen­trat­ing on por­trait pho­tog­ra­phy in a nice, air-​conditioned studio.

Your Guide to Dis­ney World Weather

Look, I’m here to help. I’m a life­long native res­i­dent of Cen­tral Florida. With that in mind, I’d like to give you a guide for your Dis­ney World weather plan­ning needs from here to eter­nity. You can adjust for vari­a­tions like global warm­ing, new ice ages, flood and drought. We’ve had all of those while I’ve been liv­ing here, but this guide still holds true.

From June through Mid-​September — It’s hot. It’s muggy. We have thun­der­storms and occa­sional hur­ri­canes. Don’t worry about the temps in the 90’s. It’s the humid­ity in the 90’s that will make your life miserable.

Mid-​September through Late Decem­ber — It’s not hot. It’s not muggy. It’s rel­a­tively high, unless we have a hur­ri­cane. Then it’s very wet. Con­sid­er­ing that hur­ri­cane sea­son runs until Novem­ber 30^th, this is a pos­si­bil­ity. How­ever, we really only get hit every four or five years. If we haven’t been hit with a hur­ri­cane in four years, you should worry about one screw­ing up your vaca­tion because we’re due for one. If we got hit by a hur­ri­cane last year, go ahead and book it! You’re going to have pleas­ant Dis­ney World weather.

Late Decem­ber — Mid Feb­ru­ary — It’s not hot and may even get cool. In some cases, it can get damn cold. For­tu­nately, damn cold doesn’t last very long in Florida. You may need to dress in lay­ers that don’t match, but that’s OK. It’s what local Florid­i­ans do because we don’t have any real cold weather cloth­ing. Some of us don’t even own socks.

Mid Feb­ru­ary — April — It’s actu­ally pleas­ant. Mild tem­per­a­tures, no big storms or any other prob­lems. It’s the best time to be here, which is why we’re filled up with Spring Break­ers and Bik­ers dur­ing this time of year. Most of them will be loud, obnox­ious and drunk, but that has noth­ing to do with the weather.

May — This month is here to remind you that the swel­ter­ing sum­mer months are com­ing. It’s going to be hot and the humid­ity will start to rise, but it’s not yet as bad as the sum­mer. Make of it what you can, expect a few short show­ers. This is a good month to hit the pool and have some ice cream.

There you go. That’s your Dis­ney World weather guide for any year. Now you can plan your vaca­tion in peace.