Where to go in February
The sun belt spends February earning its name while the north is still buttoned into coats. It’s the widest that gap gets all year, and the easiest one to fix with a plane ticket.
Beach warm
3 places
Genuinely warm
17 places
- Hilo HI 78° / 64° Warm, wet, and quiet — Hilo's default setting.
- Miami FL 78° / 63° Dry air, blue water, and a breeze that does the work.
- Lihue (Kauai) HI 78° / 66° Wet and warm — bring shoes you don't mind soaking.
- Fort Myers FL 78° / 57° As close to flawless as a Florida winter gets.
- Key West FL 77° / 67° The driest weeks of the year, and it shows.
- Fort Lauderdale FL 77° / 63° Peak-season sun, and the ocean is still bracing.
- Naples FL 77° / 58° Rain almost forgets to happen; town is at capacity.
- South Padre Island TX 76° / 57° The wind does the work here: kites, not swimsuits.
- Orlando FL 75° / 52° The month locals brag about — dry, sunny, never hot.
- Sarasota FL 75° / 55° Bright, dry, and easy on everything but parking.
- Tampa FL 74° / 56° Bright and mild — the reason half of Ohio is here.
- Palm Springs CA 74° / 50° Postcard weather, and everyone in the valley knows it.
- Death Valley CA 74° / 49° Bright, mild, and wide open — salt flats at their best.
- Clearwater FL 73° / 55° Sun without sweat; the Gulf still says no.
- Corpus Christi TX 72° / 52° Blue skies, cold bay, and hardly a soul around.
- Daytona Beach FL 72° / 51° Race weather: bright, cool, and loud downtown.
- Phoenix AZ 71° / 49° Golf-shirt weather with the whole valley outside for it.
Mild
31 places
- St. Augustine FL 70° / 50° Crisp, walkable, and empty in the best way.
- Tucson AZ 69° / 43° Rodeo weather — bright, breezy, and made for standing outside.
- Anaheim CA 69° / 48° Wet spells come in short bursts; the rest is bright.
- Los Angeles CA 68° / 50° Wettest month of the year — which here still means mostly sun.
- Houston TX 68° / 48° Mild, mossy, and the first crawfish signs go up.
- San Antonio TX 68° / 45° Winter loosening its grip — rodeo season, jackets optional.
- Panama City Beach FL 67° / 46° Grey and wet more often than the brochures admit.
- Austin TX 67° / 46° Grey stretches, then a run of open-window afternoons.
- Pensacola FL 66° / 47° Damp and cool, with parades to make up for it.
- Galveston TX 66° / 52° Beads, parades, and a sea still far too cold.
- San Diego CA 66° / 52° Damp, green, and still warm enough for an outdoor table.
- Destin FL 66° / 48° Sweatshirt weather with a Gulf too cold to consider.
- New Orleans LA 65° / 51° Carnival weather: unpredictable, occasionally miserable, entirely worth it.
- Savannah GA 65° / 43° Bright afternoons, brisk mornings, the first azalea buds showing.
- Gulf Shores AL 64° / 45° Bike-riding weather with a jacket and nobody in your way.
- El Paso TX 64° / 39° Shirtsleeves by afternoon; the desert starts thinking about spring.
- Santa Barbara CA 64° / 44° The wettest weeks, and the hills answer within days.
- Hilton Head Island SC 64° / 43° Fleece at breakfast, none of it needed by afternoon.
- Las Vegas NV 63° / 44° Sun with a chill under it; patios need a jacket.
- Santa Cruz CA 62° / 42° One of the wettest months, and the surf pays it back.
- Monterey CA 62° / 45° Gray skies, gray whales, and rain most weeks.
- Sedona AZ 61° / 36° Wettest stretch of the year — pack boots that shed mud.
- Napa CA 61° / 40° Yellow mustard down every row, between the wet days.
- Dallas TX 61° / 40° The month that hands you ice or hands you spring.
- San Francisco CA 60° / 48° Damp and mild, with the hillsides at their greenest.
- Charleston SC 60° / 46° Cool, bright, and blessedly short on tour groups.
- Atlanta GA 58° / 39° Winter loosening its grip, one mild afternoon at a time.
- Myrtle Beach SC 58° / 40° Golf weather, plain and simple — bring a windbreaker.
- Zion National Park UT 58° / 34° Winter's tail — quiet trails and low, raking light.
- Charlotte NC 57° / 35° The mildest of the cold months, and the driest.
- Memphis TN 56° / 37° Still winter, but the afternoons start giving something back.
Crisp
31 places
- Albuquerque NM 54° / 30° Winter's grip loosens; the Sandias keep their snow.
- Nashville TN 54° / 33° Winter's back half: raw, wet, occasionally briefly springlike.
- Virginia Beach VA 53° / 33° Grey and blustery — a museum-and-brewery kind of month.
- Outer Banks NC 53° / 37° Raw and beautiful; bring more layers than seems necessary.
- Williamsburg VA 52° / 32° Cold enough to keep everyone home. Go anyway.
- Reno NV 52° / 29° Frozen mornings that give way to genuinely pleasant afternoons.
- Moab UT 52° / 27° Sun with real warmth in it, and nobody around.
- Asheville NC 52° / 32° Winter hanging on, though the light is already better.
- Portland OR 52° / 37° Camellias out, coats still on, rain taking a breather.
- Yosemite Valley CA 51° / 30° Wet and cold, and the month everyone comes to photograph.
- Branson MO 51° / 31° Cold, still, and cheap; the hills keep to themselves.
- Gatlinburg TN 51° / 29° Freezing nights, bare branches, and waterfalls running hard.
- Seattle WA 50° / 38° Grayness with a crack of light — days lengthen fast.
- Santa Fe NM 50° / 23° Bright and biting; adobe walls hold the afternoon warmth.
- Washington, DC DC 48° / 32° Short, bleak days. This is a museum month.
- Denver CO 48° / 19° Snow falls, melts by Thursday, falls again — winter on repeat.
- Ocean City MD 47° / 29° Coldest water of the year and a town still asleep.
- Colorado Springs CO 47° / 20° Winter with the volume down, and chinooks blowing through.
- Grand Canyon AZ 46° / 21° Bitter mornings that soften into astonishing light by lunch.
- Boise ID 46° / 29° The lid lifts, the foothills thaw, boots hit dirt.
- Atlantic City NJ 46° / 26° Cold, dark, and gorgeous if you dress properly.
- St. Louis MO 46° / 28° Grudging thaw: one warm week, then winter's reminder.
- Flagstaff AZ 46° / 20° Still winter, but the sun starts winning by afternoon.
- Bend OR 46° / 24° Blue-sky ski days above, hard frost on the sidewalks.
- Salt Lake City UT 45° / 29° Powder still stacking, and the inversion starting to break.
- Philadelphia PA 44° / 28° The month Philadelphia tests your commitment.
- South Lake Tahoe CA 43° / 19° Best snow of the season, and daylight to use it.
- Durango CO 43° / 16° Cold enough to keep the snow, bright enough to sit outside.
- Park City UT 43° / 17° The best of the season, with the crowds gone home.
- New York City NY 42° / 30° Grey, gritty, and the snowiest stretch of the winter.
- Cape Cod MA 41° / 25° The ocean bottoms out now, weeks behind the air.
Deep winter
20 places
- Newport RI 40° / 25° Least rain of any month, and a properly frigid bay.
- Boston MA 39° / 25° Deepest snow of the winter, shortest patience of the year.
- Bozeman MT 37° / 17° Still winter, still snowing, and finally some light back.
- Chicago IL 36° / 22° Still frozen, but the days finally start giving light back.
- Juneau AK 36° / 25° The winter's brightest weeks, if you catch a clearing.
- Aspen CO 35° / 13° Peak winter — everything open, everything booked, everything white.
- Portland, Maine ME 35° / 17° Still full winter, but the light is coming back.
- Bar Harbor ME 35° / 18° The sea itself is near freezing; dress like you mean it.
- Yellowstone WY 34° / 12° Midwinter silence, steam against snow, almost nobody there.
- Niagara Falls NY 33° / 17° Barely any water falls, and the ice is magnificent.
- Burlington VT 32° / 14° Driest month on paper, deepest snowpack in practice.
- Jackson Hole WY 30° / 9° Deep midwinter, bluebird days, and lift lines to match.
- Traverse City MI 30° / 14° Ice on the bay and shanties out on it.
- Mackinac Island MI 29° / 7° Deep cold, deep quiet — the straits are a frozen road.
- Minneapolis MN 29° / 13° Winter's long middle: the city leans in rather than complains.
- Door County WI 28° / 12° Ice fishing, dark-sky nights, and very few open doors.
- Lake Placid NY 27° / 8° Deep snow, brighter afternoons, and the best winter weeks here.
- Anchorage AK 27° / 15° Light comes back fast, and the snow is at its best.
- Denali National Park AK 20° / -1° Cold, bright, and firm underfoot — proper winter travel.
- Fairbanks AK 12° / -11° Cold with the light back — the aurora watcher's month.
Warm water this month
Snow you can mostly count on
- Aspen 28.3 in
- Traverse City 21.4 in
- Lake Placid 21.0 in
- Flagstaff 19.3 in
- Burlington 19.3 in
- Juneau 16.7 in
- Portland, Maine 16.6 in
- Jackson Hole 15.6 in
- Boston 14.4 in
- Anchorage 13.4 in
- Bozeman 13.0 in
- Park City 12.9 in
- Door County 12.9 in
- Yellowstone 11.5 in
- Salt Lake City 10.7 in
- Chicago 10.7 in
- New York City 10.1 in
- Fairbanks 10.0 in
- Denali National Park 9.6 in
- Minneapolis 9.5 in
- Philadelphia 8.4 in
- Grand Canyon 7.8 in
- Denver 7.6 in