аÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û

Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Daytona Beach, Florida

Daytona beach by Leon Robinson from

Daytona Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. It lies about 51 miles (82.1 km) northeast of Orlando, 86 miles (138.4 km) southeast of Jacksonville, and 242 miles (389.5 km) northwest of Miami. In the 2010 U.S. Census, it had a population of 61,005. It is a principal city of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL metropolitan statistical area, which was home to 590,289 people in 2010. Daytona Beach is also a principal city of the Fun Coast region of Florida.

Daytona Beach attracts huge numbers of out-of-town visitors for a variety of events, most notably Speedweeks in early February when over 200,000 NASCAR fans converge on the city to watch the season-opening Daytona 500. The NASCAR Coke Zero 400 race in July, Bike Week in early March, Biketoberfest in late October, and the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race in January are among the other events.

1. Origins

Daytona beach by Chris Laner from

The Timucua Indians are the original inhabitants of the land that is now known as Daytona Beach. They lived in fortified villages and were brought to the brink of extinction (and eventually extinction via assimilation) by the Europeans through war, pillage, enslavement and disease. 

2. Mathias Day

Daytona Beach was named after Mathias Day – a native of Ohio who purchased the old Spanish Land Grant from the Williams Orange Plantation in 1870. Growth was slow until industrialist Henry Flagler brought his railroad to town in the 1890s. In 1926 the cities of Seabreeze, Kingston, Daytona, and Daytona Beach were consolidated as Daytona Beach. 

3. Mecca of Motorsports

Daytona Beach is renowned for its wide beach, constituted of smooth, hard-packed sands. This makes it a petrol heads dream and many land speed tests and records have been set on this very beach since the 1900s. To this day, driving is allowed on the beach albeit at no more than 16mph.

4. Tallest Lighthouse

In 1887, a lighthouse was erected in the town of Ponce Inlet, located on the southernmost part of Daytona Beach. The lighthouse is 175 feet and remains the tallest lighthouse in Florida.

 5. Vacay!

Dubbed ‘The World’s Most Famous Beach’ since the 1920’s, Daytona Beach attracts over 10 million visitors a year.  The beautiful beaches, balmy weather, and endless attractions provide the perfect vacation for people of all ages and dispositions. It is particularly popular with college students over Spring Break.

6. Aileen Wuornos

Aileen Wuornos is Daytona Beach’s most infamous resident. She was a serial killer, murdering 7 men in 12 months. Her heinous exploits were portrayed in the Hollywood movie Monster (2003) in which Charlize Theron won the trifecta of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild for her portrayal of Wuornos.  

7. LPGA

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), headquartered in Daytona Beach, is the oldest continuing women’s professional sports organization in the United States. In 2019, the LPGA set a new record was set with total prize money amounting to $70.5 million- by far the most lucrative ladies’ golf circuit in the world. 

8. Climate

climate Daytona beach by Mutaz Albar from Wikimedia commons

Daytona Beach has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climatic classification Cfa), which is characteristic of states in the Gulf and South Atlantic. Daytona Beach, like much of Florida, has two seasons: the warmer, wetter season (late May through October) and the cooler, drier season (November through April) (November through April).

In the summer, typical daytime highs in Daytona Beach area are in the 80s and low 90s (26 to 33 °C) while average nighttime lows are about 70 °F (21 °C). The Bermuda High transports hot, unstable tropical air from the Bahamas and the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in daily but short thundershowers. This time of year sees a substantial portion of Daytona Beach’s annual rainfall. Autumn and spring are transitional seasons, with daytime highs in the 75-80 F (21-24 °C) range and nightly lows in the 50s to low 60s (10-17 °C).

Winter weather in Daytona Beach is typical of cities on the Florida peninsula. The coldest months are December through February, with typical daytime highs ranging from 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (18 to 21 degrees Celsius) and overnight lows at 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). A few times every month, cold fronts bring daytime temperatures into the 50s F and nighttime temperatures into the 30s F. Daytona Beach, like all of Florida, maybe extremely dry in late winter and early spring, resulting in brush fires and water restrictions. According to the National Weather Service office in Melbourne, Daytona Beach has just 6 frosts per year on average.

9. Jackie Robinson & Civil Rights

Jackie Robinson played in the first integrated spring training baseball game with the Montreal Royals, a farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Daytona Beach’s City Island Ballpark on March 17, 1946. Robinson went on to be the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues and has been immortalized in the Hall of Fame. City Island was renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark in 1989 and a life-size statue of him has been cast at the entrance. 

10. Culture

Daytona Beach and Volusia County’s principal cultural centre is the Museum of Arts and Sciences. The Southeast Museum of Photography and the Halifax Historical Museum are two more museums in the city. The Museum of Arts and Sciences is actually a collection of museums and galleries that includes the Klancke Environmental Complex, the Cuban Museum, the Root Family Museum, which houses one of the world’s largest Coca-Cola collections, the Dow American Gallery, and the Bouchelle Center for Decorative Arts, which together form one of the Southeast’s finest collections of furniture and decorative arts.

There are frequently changing exhibitions, and in 2008, a children’s science centre debuted. Since 1952, the Daytona Beach Symphony Society, a non-profit organization, has presented performances by  U.S. and international orchestras, opera and dance companies each season at the Peabody Auditorium.