Where Is Florida? On the morning of May 5, 1961, half a million people gathered on beaches near Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station) to watch a once-in-a-lifetime event. About forty-five million Americans were glued to their television sets. Even President John F. Kennedy was watching TV from the White House!
People anxiously awaited the launch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Redstone 3 rocket. The rocket would carry a Mercury capsule called
Freedom 7 into outer space. Inside would be an astronaut, Alan Shepard.
The flight was delayed for more than two hours because of technical difficulties. As the minutes ticked by, people wondered: What’s taking so long? Will the rocket take off?
At 9:34 a.m., it finally did, launching Shepard into space and into history books. Shepard was the first American ever to go to space. The fifteen-minute, twenty-eight-second flight was a huge achievement for the US space program.
Eight years later, the US space program put the first human on the moon—and he took off from Florida!
Chapter 1Florida’s Land, Coasts, and EnvironmentFlorida is the southernmost state on the US mainland. About two-thirds of the state lies on a peninsula (a piece of land surrounded by water on three sides). It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and the Straits of Florida and Cuba to the south. Alabama is to its northwest, Georgia to its north.
The Florida Keys are a chain of over 1,700 small islands off the southern tip of the peninsula. The Keys stretch about 200 miles. About forty of these tropical islands are connected by bridges.
When it comes to land area, Florida is not particularly big. At 65,758 square miles, it’s only the twenty-second-largest US state. Population-wise, however, Florida is the third-largest state in the country, after California and Texas, as of 2023.
Florida is the flattest state in the United States. Much of its land is made of sedimentary rock, which forms when sand, mud, and pebbles get pressed together and harden over millions of years. Most of Florida lies less than one hundred feet above sea level. The only hills in Florida are along its border with Georgia and Alabama in the northern part of the state.
Most of Florida is coastal plain (a flat, low-lying piece of land next to the ocean). Florida has over 8,400 miles of shoreline, second only to Alaska. In fact, no point in Florida is more than 60 miles from a coast! Different areas of Florida’s seaside have unique features and cultures. These coastal regions even have fun nicknames.
In northeastern Florida is the First Coast—the first part of the coast you reach when entering Florida from Georgia. Duval County, including Jacksonville, the largest city by area in the continental United States, covers 875 square miles and is part of the First Coast.
South of the First Coast is the Space Coast, the hub of the US space program. NASA and other space companies build, test, and launch rockets at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island and at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Space Coast is also famous for another activity—surfing! Cocoa Beach is known as the surfing capital of the East Coast and boasts the world’s largest surf shop, Ron Jon Surf Shop.
Further south is the Treasure Coast, named for the shipwrecks that took place in its waters. These include eleven Spanish ships that were wrecked during a hurricane in 1715 while carrying gold, silver, gemstones, and other treasures. The ships remained mostly undisturbed in the water for over two hundred years until silver and other items began to wash up on the beach. People started to scuba dive to the shipwrecks to hunt for treasure. Since then, many thousands of artifacts and treasures have been discovered.
The Treasure Coast is home to Indian River Lagoon. The lagoon is actually an estuary, or an area where a river flows into the ocean. In fact, it’s the most biologically diverse estuary in North America, which means it has the most individual species living in it. Indian River Lagoon has over four thousand species of animals and plants! Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island is also part of the Treasure Coast. There, columns of salt water sometimes shoot as many as fifty feet into the sky through holes in the limestone rock.
The western coast of Florida (part of the US Gulf Coast) is known for its white sand beaches and aqua or emerald-green water. The northwestern part of the state is called the Florida Panhandle, because it’s a narrow strip of land extending from the larger state of Florida, resembling the handle of a cooking pan. The Panhandle is home to the Marianna lowlands, full of limestone caves and sinkholes (areas where water has caused the limestone to cave in, forming a hole in the ground). The Panhandle also has the state’s highest point, Britton Hill. At only 345 feet above sea level, it’s the lowest “high point” of any state.
Everglades National Park lies at the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. This park includes 1.5 million acres of swampy marshland full of all sorts of wildlife, from manatees to Florida panthers to wading birds such as egrets. A lot of the watery land is covered with saw grass, a type of wild plant that grows up to fifteen feet tall. Everglades National Park is the only place in the world where both alligators and crocodiles live together in the wild. The Everglades used to be much bigger. In the past, people drained parts of the Everglades to grow crops. They built levees (long walls of soil that help prevent flooding) and canals to make room for farms and houses. In 1947, Everglades National Park was created to protect what was left of this unique habitat.
In addition to its coastline, Florida has over 7,700 lakes, about 1,700 streams, and over 1,000 freshwater springs. Lake Okeechobee (say: ow-kee-CHOW-bee) is located at the northern edge of the Everglades in south-central Florida and is the state’s largest freshwater lake. Even though it’s big, it’s shallow—an average of only nine feet deep. That makes it a great home for wading birds, among other species. Dry Tortugas National Park in the Gulf of Mexico and Biscayne National Park in the northern Florida Keys are both over 90 percent covered by water.
Florida is home to the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. Corals may look like plants or rocks but are actually made up of small marine animals called polyps (say: PA-lips). They are connected to one another, stay in one place, and have hard skeletons. Like a beehive has thousands of bees, corals have many thousands of polyps—and reefs have thousands of corals. A coral reef is a living community! A barrier reef is a reef that forms in open water. The Florida Reef extends over 350 miles.
Most of Florida has a humid subtropical climate, which means hot summers and mild winters. Southern Florida has a tropical climate, which means it’s humid and warm year-round, with lots of rain. It’s rarely very cold for long anywhere in the state. In fact, Florida is one of the hottest and most humid US states. Florida also gets lots of sun: There are about 250 days of sunshine each year! That’s why Florida is nicknamed the Sunshine State. The nickname doesn’t tell the whole story: Florida also has more thunderstorms and hurricanes than any other state.
Florida HurricanesA hurricane is a strong storm that starts in the ocean with heavy rain and winds of at least seventy-four miles per hour. A hurricane begins when a tropical depression (a line of weak storms circling around an area of low air pressure) forms in the ocean. The low air pressure causes warm air that evaporates (turns into water vapor) from the ocean’s surface to rise in a spiral. Because it draws on warm air and water, a hurricane usually starts over tropical oceans. As the air rises, it cools down and condenses (becomes more compact) into large storm clouds. The low-pressure area continues to suck up warm, moist air, making the spiral faster and stronger.Hurricanes can produce winds of over 150 miles per hour. Winds that strong can destroy homes and damage roads and bridges. They also bring seawater in to flood neighborhoods and cities.
Florida generally experiences hurricanes between June and November. The deadliest Florida hurricane was the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928. It made landfall near West Palm Beach and killed over 2,500 people. In 2004, four hurricanes pummeled Florida in only six weeks. In 2024, Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast with winds of up to 180 miles per hour, making it one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded. More than three hundred types of native trees grow in Florida. This includes mangroves (tropical trees with roots growing from their branches), apple and cherry trees, and over a dozen types of palm trees, some of which can grow to be over sixty feet tall. There are also about four thousand species of beautiful native plants, including some less beautiful species that are still important. The Florida ziziphus may look tough with two-inch-long thorns, but this shrub from central Florida is critically endangered.
The state animal, the Florida panther, is also endangered. Florida’s waters are home to many manatees, bottlenose dolphins, northern right whales, and other marine mammals (mammals that live in the ocean). The Florida scrub jay is a bird found only in the Sunshine State. Even wild hogs roam throughout Florida!
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