Florida · 10 m elevation

Barometric Pressure in Tampa, FL

• 30.05Average pressure (inHg, sea level)
• 42.8Swing days a year · 48th of 50
• 9.2Big-swing days a year (≥10 hPa)
• 18.5Significant 24h drop days a year

Overview

Tampa averages 30.05 inHg (1017.5 hPa) and just 42.8 significant pressure swing days a year — 48th of 50 US cities — but its record drop hit -1.10 inHg.

Tampa's barometer sits high and moves very little. Mean sea-level pressure over 2015-2024 was 30.05 inHg (1017.5 hPa), with the middle of the distribution tightly packed: the 5th percentile is 29.86 inHg (1011.2 hPa) and the 95th is 30.26 inHg (1024.6 hPa). The standard deviation is 0.12 inHg (4.15 hPa), against a national median of 6.87 hPa across the 50 cities in this dataset — 47th of 50 for variability. A typical 24-hour change here is 0.04 inHg (1.5 hPa), small enough that most days register as no change at all on a household instrument.

At 10 meters of elevation, Tampa needs essentially no correction. Mean station pressure is 30.01 inHg (1016.3 hPa) versus the sea-level mean of 30.05 inHg (1017.5 hPa) — a 0.04 inHg (1.2 hPa) offset. A barometer reporting raw station pressure and one reporting sea-level pressure will agree to within the width of the needle.

What makes Tampa unusual is not the calm; it's the tail. The city ranks 48th of 50 for significant swing days (42.8 per year, versus a national median of 180.7 — the median city sees 4.2 times as many) and 47th for big-swing days (9.2 per year, against a median of 86.1, a factor of 9.4). Yet its single largest 24-hour fall, -1.10 inHg (-37.2 hPa), ranks 20th of 50 nationally — deeper than Seattle's worst, -0.91 inHg (-30.7 hPa), in a city that sees nearly five times Tampa's routine motion. Tampa runs flat almost all the time and then, rarely, drops harder than most of the country ever does.

Migraine & pressure-sensitivity outlook

• Low — under 6 hPa (0.18 inHg)
• Elevated — 6 to 10 hPa
• High — 10 hPa (0.30 inHg) or more
• Dashed outline = forecast (after today)

Association only. This calendar shows days when pressure changed — or is forecast to change — sharply over 24 hours, conditions associated with pressure sensitivity in some people. It is not a prediction of symptoms, not a diagnosis, and not medical advice. The 30 days of history are there so you can compare the days you actually felt something against what the barometer did. Talk to a clinician about headache or migraine management.

For people who track barometric pressure, Tampa is one of the quieter cities in the country. Significant swing days — 24-hour changes of at least 0.18 inHg (6 hPa) — average 42.8 per year, 48th of 50. Drop days, meaning significant 24-hour falls, average 18.5 per year, or roughly one every three weeks. Big-swing days of 0.30 inHg (10 hPa) or more average 9.2 per year. For comparison, Denver logs 281.6 swing days a year, 6.6 times Tampa's count, and 169.8 big-swing days. Within Florida, Tampa sits between Jacksonville, which has 1.9 times as many swing days, and Miami, the calmest city in the set, which has less than half of Tampa's.

The conditions many pressure-sensitive people report as triggers are concentrated rather than spread out. January carries 4.6 drop days per year, February 3.9, and December 2.8 — those three months hold more significant falls than the other nine combined. July averages zero drop days, and June, August, and May each average 0.5 or fewer. If you are sensitive to falling pressure, the active window in Tampa runs roughly December through March, with a secondary period in the tropical season when the changes are far less frequent but far larger.

That asymmetry is the thing to keep in mind here. Tampa's routine motion ranks near the bottom nationally, but its extreme single-day falls do not: the -1.10 inHg (-37.2 hPa) record is 2.3 times Miami's worst and ranks 20th of 50. Long stretches pass with almost nothing on the barometer, and then a change arrives that is larger than most residents of high-volatility cities ever see. Individual responses to pressure change vary widely, and keeping a personal log alongside local barometer readings is one way to see how your own pattern lines up with the city's.

Seasonal patterns

The seasonal split is close to absolute. Significant swing days cluster in winter: January averages 10.5, February 8.7, and December 6.6, together accounting for well over half the year's total. That variability comes from cold fronts sweeping down the peninsula, and it shows in the monthly spread — January's standard deviation is 0.14 inHg (4.83 hPa) and its mean pressure is the year's highest at 30.13 inHg (1020.3 hPa). Summer is the opposite: July averages 0.0 significant swing days, June 0.3, August 0.4, and May 0.9. July's standard deviation falls to 0.07 inHg (2.29 hPa). From May through August the subtropical pressure field over Florida is nearly uniform, and the barometer simply sits still.

September is the lowest-mean month at 29.96 inHg (1014.5 hPa) and produces only 1.6 significant swing days per year — but it holds the largest changes on record. The steepest 24-hour fall in the ten-year period, -1.10 inHg (-37.2 hPa), ended at 01:00 on September 11, 2017, the same hour as the record low of 28.68 inHg (971.3 hPa). The maximum 24-hour rise, +1.07 inHg (+36.3 hPa), followed as the system cleared. The record high, 30.61 inHg (1036.4 hPa), came from the other regime entirely: a strong winter high on January 9, 2017.

The rest of the top drops split between the two seasons: -0.79 inHg (-26.9 hPa) ending October 9, 2024; -0.69 inHg (-23.2 hPa) on November 10, 2022; -0.64 inHg (-21.6 hPa) on December 17, 2023; and -0.47 inHg (-15.8 hPa) on September 28, 2022. The fastest six-hour fall on record was -0.63 inHg (-21.2 hPa), against a normal six-hour range of roughly -0.09 to +0.08 inHg (-3.1 to +2.8 hPa).

Month by month

Swing days: 24-hour change of at least 6 hPa (0.18 inHg). Drop days: 24-hour fall of at least 6 hPa. Averages per year, 2015–2024.

Records and extremes

Sharpest 24-hour drops, 2015–2024

Nearby cities

• Jacksonville, FL
• Miami, FL
• Atlanta, GA
• New Orleans, LA
• Charlotte, NC
• Raleigh, NC

All 50 cities · Check any US location · Methodology