Jupiter/Palm Beach Diving...

[JoJoS]

Hey guys.

I'm looking at booking a holiday in Florida next year and would like to do some diving over 3-4 days in the Jupiter/Palm Beach area before going down to The Keys for a week. The diving in those areas appear to be highly rated. I'm just trying to decide what the best time is to go - I'm restricted from around February to the beginning of May.
Can people advise which month I'm likely to experience good weather & viz conditions and also what kind of life I will encounter that time of year in the area?

Looking forward to it already - and nothings even booked yet!!
Thanks in advance!
JoJo

 

[Divin'Papaw]

More sharks in the winter, more goliath grouper in Aug-Sep, more turtles in the summer nesting season May-Oct. The tropical fish and eels are pretty much a constant.

Best conditions are typically summer ... May-Oct ... discounting the occasional tropical storm/hurricane and the ever-present afternoon thunderstoms. Overall winds are calmer than they are in the winter. Cold fronts don't reach this far south in the summer like they can in the winter.

With all of that said, you can see anything (sharks, rays, goliath grouper, turtles, healthy populations of tropical fish and eels) at just about any time and conditions can be fantastic or crappy any part of the year. But the above summary is the general overall flow of things in Palm Beach County.

In closing ... Yes, Palm Beach County has FANTASTIC diving as does Broward. If you hit the Keys but miss Palm Beach and Broward counties you are missing out. Key Largo is awesome but I actually prefer the diversity of Broward-Palm Beach Counties. We have wrecks, reefs, big stuff, little stuff, drift diving, fixed (wreck) diving, and don't forget Blue Heron Bridge. This area simply rocks!!

 

[iamrushman]

pack light...weather is hot and the ocean is very warm...

 

[ScottFL78]

That is a good time frame. During the Winter we get rough seas which seem to know I am off on the weekends. Haha. Late Summer is Hurricane season but they don’t always come. You should have good seas and great viz with turtles, sharks and the usual goliath here and there. In May water breaks into the 80s so 3 mil for most people.

 

[sportxlh]

From my experience living in SE Florida, the likelihood of calm seas starts in May and runs to the fall. That's not to say the odd Feb week can have dead calm conditions or the odd July week can have terrible marine conditions.

Now that I have to travel back to dive, I focus on that same time frame of late spring to mid-fall. When I'm in Florida from Jan-April, I usually mentally prepare for diving at Blue Heron Bridge during, but count myself lucky if I can get out in the big water

 

[kelemvor]

pack light...weather is hot and the ocean is very warm...

Are you kidding? The air temperature got down to 65f/18.3c one night this February. Brrr.

I don't think the water temps ever get that low, do they?

 

[caruso]

Are you kidding? The air temperature got down to 65f/18.3c one night this February. Brrr.

Agree with @kelemvor

We dived West Palm through Fort Lauderdale last week. (end of April).

It was chilly, on a wreck in FL we hit 69 degrees and water temps weren't much higher than mid 70s up through West Palm Beach. Even us cold tolerant divers were feeling it with 3mm wetsuits. Some wore hoods.

 

[iamrushman]

it's not May yet...it gets warm quick.

 

[PatW]

It can get cold at any time at Jupiter. If water upwells from the depths, it gets cold. I had 68 degrees in August.

 

[sportxlh]

It can get cold at any time at Jupiter. If water upwells from the depths, it gets cold. I had 68 degrees in August.

I agree, while it is unusual, the cold water upwellings can get really cold. I've had them dip down into the very low 60s in the middle of summer. Other divers have told me about upwellings that have gotten into the 50s