{"id":134896,"date":"2026-01-28T13:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134896\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T13:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:16:09","slug":"manatees-flock-to-blue-spring-state-park-during-florida-freeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134896\/","title":{"rendered":"Manatees flock to Blue Spring State Park during Florida freeze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">ORANGE CITY, Fla. \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/weather\/2026\/01\/28\/how-low-will-temps-go-rare-cold-blast-to-send-florida-into-hard-freeze\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/weather\/2026\/01\/28\/how-low-will-temps-go-rare-cold-blast-to-send-florida-into-hard-freeze\/\">Freezing cold weather<\/a> in Florida is sending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/topic\/Manatees\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/topic\/Manatees\/\">manatees<\/a> in search of warmer waters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.floridastateparks.org\/parks-and-trails\/blue-spring-state-park\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.floridastateparks.org\/parks-and-trails\/blue-spring-state-park\">Blue Spring State Park<\/a> in Orange City on Tuesday recorded 241 manatees, with more expected in the coming days to an extended, even colder blast of weather headed to the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">Spring waters stay 72 degrees year-round, providing a comfortable setting for manatees, which don\u2019t have a lot of body fat and can\u2019t tolerate temperatures much colder than 68 degrees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">[FLASHBACK VIDEO: Rescued manatees released at Blue Spring]<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">The manatee turnout also causes an uptick in human visitors to the park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">\u201c(The) sun was out, it was over 50 degrees, and we saw hundreds of manatees,\u201d a park visitor said. \u201cThe water is clear and the fish are so big, and it\u2019s just an amazing place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">\u201c(Manatees) are amazing animals,\u201d a woman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">[VIDEO BELOW: Could it snow in Central Florida?]<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">The forecast calls for a hard freeze in Central Florida over the weekend, so there will be ample time for you to see manatees at Florida springs \u2014 if you\u2019re willing to brave the cold weather.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">Blue Spring State Park\u2019s website, however, warns visitors that park frequently reaches capacity and may temporarily close.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClosures occur intermittently and may last several hours. Visitors with camping or boat tour reservations will be admitted to the park while it is closed, but pedestrians and bicyclists will not be allowed to enter until the park reopens,\u201d the website message says.Daily Forecast<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">The News 6 Weather team ensures you&#8217;re always on top of the day&#8217;s weather.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE CITY, Fla. \u2013 Freezing cold weather in Florida is sending manatees in search of warmer waters. Blue&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12495,28,44682,30,29,22970,22624,3687,2261],"class_list":["post-134896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-blue-spring-state-park","tag-florida","tag-florida-freeze","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-freeze","tag-manatees","tag-orange-city","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}