On July 27, 2025, the heat reached triple digits in Tampa, Florida, to much fanfare. According to some social media posts, it was the highest temperature ever recorded in the city.
The claim that Tampa reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time ever was liked more than 250,000 times on Instagram (archived) and received more than 1,000 upvotes on the Tampa subreddit (archived). Many of the replies to an X post (archived) viewed more than 2 million times were from people who doubted or disputed that it was the first time Tampa ever reached a high of 100.
Tampa apparently wasn't the only major Florida city to rarely hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit; according to meteorologist Alex Libby (archived) of Nashville news station WKRN, Miami had reached a triple-digit temperature just once in recorded history.
It's true that recorded temperatures in Tampa and Miami had reached 100 degrees only once each, as of this writing, and that Tampa's temperature had never been in the triple digits until July 2025. However, both cities have experienced a heat index — what the temperature feels like when considering the humidity — at or above 100 on many occasions.
According to the National Weather Service, the high temperature in Miami topped out at 100 only once between 1896 and 2024: on July 21, 1942. As of this writing, Miami hadn't surpassed 97-degree temperatures in 2025.
Between 1890 and December 2024, Tampa's highest recorded temperature was 99 degrees, which the city reached in June 1985 and again in June 2020, according to the NWS. Tampa's temperature had hit 100 only once in 2025, as of this writing.
However, due to the high humidity in both cities, Miami and Tampa alike are often prone to heat indexes that surpass 100. Miami has experienced 30 or more consecutive days with a heat index of at least 100 degrees at least three times, according to the University of Miami. Tampa has had its heat index surpass 100 every day of the summer at least once historically, and even recorded a heat index that high as late in the year as Nov. 6 in 2024, according to the NWS.