I grew up in Massachusetts but have lived in Florida for the last 40 years; 35 years in Tampa and 5 years in Tallahassee before that. Tallahassee is heavily wooded and is sometimes known as the city in the woods. It does get hot in the summer, but the tree canopies help to moderate the heat. As the state capital and home to FSU and Florida A&M, Tallahassee basically has two seasons: college football season and state legislative season. If you are not into football or politics it’s kind of boring, but it does have some nice surrounding wooded areas for hiking, fishing and hunting.
I moved to the Tampa area in 1991 and stayed after retiring in 2020. Since my house is paid off it’s more cost-effective even with sky high insurance rates. Winter weather is wonderful except for a few short cold spells in January and February when the temperature might get into the 30s and 40s. It does get extremely hot and humid in the summer around June to October. During that period, people tend to stay indoors unless they are right on the water or have to be outside. September and October is prime hurricane season for the Tampa Bay area. Although we haven’t had a direct hit in over 100 years, there have been several close calls. In 2024 Tampa got side-swiped by Hurricanes Helene and Milton within a two week period. Although I live in a flood zone, my neighborhood avoided flooding or power outages, but just a couple of miles away there was flooding and power outages lasting several days. Even today, more than a year later, many houses still have tarps on their roof due to hurricane damage. As far as wildlife goes, I have seen an occasional coyote or alligator (I live on a lake), so be careful with pets. The most annoying wildlife to me though, are the Muscovy ducks, big aggressive birds that poop all over the place.
