History UsefulNotes / Florida

*** The "War On I-4" is the official name of the rivalry between the University of South Florida (USF) and Central Florida (UCF) athletic programs. They became conference rivals when UCF joined the American Athletic Conference, already home to USF, in 2013. In 2016, the schools had two rivalry trophies created. [[http://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/war-on-i-4-trophy-revealed/ The football trophy]] is an Interstate sign with the schools on opposite sides. The all-sports rivalry trophy, which is noticeably larger and also single-sided, is based off an Interstate sign and bears the official rivalry logo. However, with UCF having moved to the Big 12 Conference in July 2023, the rivalry is no longer an annual affair in several sports.

** Jacksonville has its own lower-profile version, with small private school Jacksonville and mid-sized public school North Florida both being members of the ASUN Conference. Neither school sponsors football, though Jacksonville did have a team through the 2019 season. The city's ''real'' fandom rivalry is when Florida and Georgia play their annual game, popularly known as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party", in the Jaguars' stadium, with ticket sales split right down the middle.

** There is a rivalry sports-wise between Tampa and Orlando between their Arena Football teams - Storm vs. Predators - promoted as "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_I-4 The War on I-4]]". It's the biggest rivalry that Arena Football had.[[note]]Past tense, since the AFL went belly-up in TheNewTens, with both the Predators (2016) and Storm (2017) falling victim in its final decline. The Storm has remained dead since, though the Predators did reconstitute in a different league.[[/note]]

*** The "War On I-4" is the official name of the rivalry between the University of South Florida (USF) and Central Florida (UCF) athletic programs. They became conference rivals when UCF joined the American Athletic Conference, already home to USF, in 2013. In 2016, the schools had two rivalry trophies created. [[http://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/war-on-i-4-trophy-revealed/ The football trophy]] is an Interstate sign with the schools on opposite sides. The all-sports rivalry trophy, which is noticeably larger and also single-sided, is based off an Interstate sign and bears the official rivalry logo. However, with UCF now set to move to the Big 12 Conference in July 2023, the rivalry will no longer be an annual affair in several sports.
* ImmigrantPatriotism: Many folks living in Miami either are or are family of Cuban immigrants who fled the communists. Head down there during 4th of July and you'll often see some of the most vibrant and enthusiastic celebrations in the nation.
* ItsAlwaysSpring: Either spring or summer. A common joke is that winter is the one time of year when not only is there ''nobody'' who's ashamed to say that they're from Florida, but in fact, they can't seem to stop bragging about it -- [[http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/barefootandpregnant/files/2013/12/National-Hate-Florida-Day.jpg much to the envy]] of people in the rest of the country. The other 49 states get their revenge during hurricane season -- and even during the winter, they laugh whenever Floridians complain about temperatures falling below 60 degrees.
* MisplacedWildlife: Plenty. Some are benign, like the budgerigar (parakeet) statewide, the wild monkeys in Central Florida (who are the descendants of monkeys that escaped back when Creator/JohnnyWeissmuller was making Tarzan movies here) and peacock populations in several coastal areas. Others are less so, like the pythons in the Everglades. Oh, did we neglect to mention the giant pythons? Because this is a state where alligators are natural fauna and the pythons are routinely getting into [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny brawls]] with them. On a less human caused example, lots of marine life passes through Florida's waterways; sometimes from very far away. Arctic seals have been spotted in brackish water rivers numerous times.

* ProfessionalWrestling: One of the top companies in the US, Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling, is headquartered in Jacksonville and owned by Tony Khan, whose father Shahid owns the Jacksonville Jaguars (as well as Fulham, which has yo-yoed between the UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague and the [[UsefulNotes/BritishFootyTeams EFL Championship]] in recent years). The other two top companies in the US have their corporate headquarters elsewhere (Wrestling/{{WWE}} in Stamford, Connecticut and Wrestling/ImpactWrestling in Nashville, Tennessee), but have strong ties to the state. Back when it was known as TNA, Impact held all of its weekly shows at the "Impact Zone", a soundstage at Universal Studios in Orlando before taking the show on the road. WWE's developmental program, NXT, recently opened a new performance center in Orlando, after having it previously under the title of Florida Championship Wrestling in Tampa (this is especially interesting as the two companies categorically do '''NOT''' get along.) Also, because of this (and also Florida's lack of a state income tax), a large number of wrestlers: current, former, and upcoming, now call Florida home (though, for the sake of variety, most are billed from their childhood home, such as current Tampa native John Cena still being billed from his childhood home in West Newbury, Massachusetts.)

** The Malenko family (Boris, Joe and Wrestling/{{Dean|Malenko}}) broke away from Championship Wrestling from Florida to form their own outlaw (runs in the same geographical area as an established promotion in competition) promotion, Sun Belt Wrestling, which did not last very long.

Being the biggest metropolitan area of Florida, it is home to most of the state's professional sports teams, including the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA's]] Miami Heat, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL's]] Miami Dolphins, the [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball MLB's]] Miami Marlins, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL's]] Florida Panthers, and Inter Miami CF of [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer MLS]]. While the former two teams are considered either powerhouses in their league (in the case of the Heat) or former powerhouses (in the case of the Dolphins, whose great era came in TheSeventies under head coach Don Shula), the next two are generally considered to be the {{Butt Monkey}}s of their respective leagues. Inter Miami only started play in 2020, so it hasn't really had time to establish a reputation. The Marlins are better known for their garish ballpark than anything, while many South Floridians are unaware of the very existence of the Panthers.[[note]]This has not been helped by the fact that the Panthers, unlike the Dolphins, Heat, or Marlins, actually don't play in either the City of Miami proper or even in Miami-Dade County. Instead, they play in Sunrise, which is in ''Broward'' County[[/note]] [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball College football]] is also very popular in the area, with the University of Miami's Hurricanes being one of the state's three major historic powerhouses (along with the aforementioned University of Florida and Florida State University).\\\

-> '''Homer Simpson:''' Florida? But that's [[EmbarrassingNickname America's wang]]!
-> '''Therapist:''' They prefer "The Sunshine State".
-->-- "Kill the Alligator and Run", ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

** '''The Villages:''' Northwest of Orlando is one of the world's largest retirement communities, The Villages. Essentially, it's Florida Man's retirement home, as there are plenty of stories from there worthy of the trope OnlyInFlorida. The biggest city of Sumter County at over 80,000 residents,[[note]]Keep in mind that it's so big, it also has municipal territority in adjacent Lake and Marion Counties. A total of 32 square miles, larger geographically than Manhattan![[/note]] it is the home of stories of orgies and drunk driving in golf carts.

** '''The Villages:''' To the north of Lakeland is one of the world's largest retirement communities, The Villages. Essentially, it's Florida Man's retirement home, as there are plenty of stories from there worthy of the trope OnlyInFlorida. The biggest city of Sumter County,[[note]]Keep in mind that it's so big, it also has municipal territority in adjacent Lake and Marion Counties. A total of 32 square miles, larger geographically than Manhattan![[/note]] it is the home of stories of orgies and drunk driving in golf carts.

* '''The Panhandle:''' So called for reasons obvious to anyone looking at a map of the state, the Panhandle is home to Tallahassee, Florida's largely forgettable capital city, with little else of note besides being the home of Florida State University and the historically-black Florida A&M University. Some nice Gulf beaches up here[[note]]Panama City Beach, in particular, has gained a status as a rival to Daytona Beach as one of Florida's biggest spring break destinations[[/note]], a major naval base at Pensacola, and... not much else. Peculiarly, much of the Panhandle is in a different time zone (Central) than the rest of the state, due to the time line being a continuation of the Alabama/Georgia border[[note]]This also makes Florida the geographically easternmost region of the US to be part of the Central Time Zone[[/note]]. It's sometimes grouped with Southern Alabama/[[UsefulNotes/GeorgiaUSA Georgia]] -- indeed, there have been multiple proposals throughout history, going back to before Florida was even part of the United States, to have the Panhandle area split off from the rest of the state and join Alabama.

** '''The Tampa Bay area''' is normally spun off into its own region. The Northerners in this area are more likely to be from the Midwest than the Northeast, due to Interstate 75 connecting it with UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}} and UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}. Historically, this was a major citrus growing area, though much of that has moved outward and inland. Although Orlando is generally regarded as the "theme park city" of Florida, Tampa manages to hold its own with Ride/BuschGardens, which is famous for its many roller coasters, though the area as a whole is generally more renowned for its large number of world-class museums. On the other end of the spectrum, it's also known for its strip clubs especially the Mons Venus as well as being the setting of ''Film/MagicMike'' and ''Film/{{Zola}}''.[[note]]The reputation as the biggest home to strip clubs is exaggerated: South Florida has far more strip clubs in just Ft. Lauderdale alone, but the local moral activists came up with the "honor" in an attempt to shame the local governments into shutting the clubs down. Furthermore, ''Magic Mike'' star Creator/ChanningTatum worked as a male stripper in Miami when he was just 18 years old.[[/note]] It's also home to a number of on-and-off sports teams, including the Tampa Bay Rays of [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} MLB]] (which actually play in nearby St. Petersburg), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague the NFL]], and a surprisingly solid (given the area) [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL]] team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The University of South Florida is located here, despite it not really being in South Florida.[[note]]The state legislature chartered South Florida in 1956 when Tampa was the southernmost metro aside from Miami in need of a public university. In 1961 they approved Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton and Florida International in Miami in 1969, so it was too late to rename the Tampa school. The Fort Myers and Naples area was not populous enough for a public college until the 1990s (Florida Gulf Coast).[[/note]] \\

Being the biggest metropolitan area of Florida, it is home to most of the state's professional sports teams, including the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA's]] Miami Heat, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL's]] Miami Dolphins, the [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams MLB's]] Miami Marlins, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL's]] Florida Panthers, and Inter Miami CF of [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer MLS]]. While the former two teams are considered either powerhouses in their league (in the case of the Heat) or former powerhouses (in the case of the Dolphins, whose great era came in TheSeventies under head coach Don Shula), the next two are generally considered to be the {{Butt Monkey}}s of their respective leagues. Inter Miami only started play in 2020, so it hasn't really had time to establish a reputation. The Marlins are better known for their garish ballpark than anything, while many South Floridians are unaware of the very existence of the Panthers.[[note]]This has not been helped by the fact that the Panthers, unlike the Dolphins, Heat, or Marlins, actually don't play in either the City of Miami proper or even in Miami-Dade County. Instead, they play in Sunrise, which is in ''Broward'' County[[/note]] [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball College football]] is also very popular in the area, with the University of Miami's Hurricanes being one of the state's three major historic powerhouses (along with the aforementioned University of Florida and Florida State University).\\\

Being the biggest metropolitan area of Florida, it is home to most of the state's professional sports teams, including the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA's]] Miami Heat, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL's]] Miami Dolphins, the [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams MLB's]] Miami Marlins, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL's]] Florida Panthers, and Inter Miami CF of [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer MLS]]. While the former two teams are considered either powerhouses in their league (in the case of the Heat) or former powerhouses (in the case of the Dolphins, whose great era came in TheSeventies under head coach Don Shula), the next two are generally considered to be the {{Butt Monkey}}s of their respective leagues. Inter Miami only started play in 2020, so it hasn't really had time to establish a reputation. The Marlins are better known for their garish ballpark than anything, while many South Floridians are unaware of the very existence of the Panthers.[[note]]This has not been helped by the fact that the Panthers, unlike the Dolphins, Heat, or Marlins, actually don't play in either the City of Miami proper or even in Miami-Dade County. Instead, the Panthers play in Sunrise, Florida, which is in ''Broward'' County[[/note]] [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball College football]] is also very popular in the area, with the University of Miami's Hurricanes being one of the state's three major historic powerhouses (along with the aforementioned University of Florida and Florida State University).\\\

Being the biggest metropolitan area of Florida, it is home to most of the state's professional sports teams, including the [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA's]] Miami Heat, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL's]] Miami Dolphins, the [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams MLB's]] Miami Marlins, the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague NHL's]] Florida Panthers, and Inter Miami CF of [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer MLS]]. While the former two teams are considered either powerhouses in their league (in the case of the Heat) or former powerhouses (in the case of the Dolphins, whose great era came in TheSeventies under head coach Don Shula), the next two are generally considered to be the {{Butt Monkey}}s of their respective leagues. Inter Miami only started play in 2020, so it hasn't really had time to establish a reputation. The Marlins are better known for their garish ballpark than anything, while many South Floridians are unaware of the very existence of the Panthers. [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball College football]] is also very popular in the area, with the University of Miami's Hurricanes being one of the state's three major historic powerhouses (along with the aforementioned University of Florida and Florida State University).\\\

** There is a rivalry sports-wise between Tampa and Orlando between their Arena Football teams - Storm vs. Predators - promoted as "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_I-4 The War on I-4]]". It's the biggest rivalry that Arena Football had.[[note]]Past tense because on October 2016 The Predators suspended operations. The Storm suspended their own in 2017, and Arena Football itself shut down soon after.[[/note]]

*** The "War On I-4" is the official rivalry name between the University of South Florida (USF) and Central Florida (UCF) football programs, due to them being in the same American Athletic Conference. As of 2016, the schools agreed [[http://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/war-on-i-4-trophy-revealed/ to a joint trophy]] which is an Interstate sign with the schools on opposite sides.

The "Sunshine State" moniker is a half-lie, as most Floridians can tell you - the state's climate has a pronounced cycle of wet and dry seasons, with summer featuring near-daily thundershowers and winter, such as it is, being very dry. Convenient for northerners looking to escape the snow, not so much for those looking for a semi-tropical vacation spent mainly on the beach. Get used to the water, because Florida is a very wet state: surrounded on three sides by water and filled with swamps, wetlands, and retention ponds. Tourists, take note: if you're here during the summer, keep an umbrella on hand. Brief but intense thundershowers with little warning are common. Florida is also ridiculously flat. The highest point of elevation, Britton Hill at 345 feet (105 m), is just that, a hill, and a rather unimpressive one; the ''lowest points'' of many states have higher elevations than Britton Hill[[note]]Though technically the highest point of elevation is a roller coaster in Orlando that protrudes nearly 200 meters above sea level[[/note]]. Because it's nigh-impossible to have a basement in Florida -- once you dig fifteen feet, you hit groundwater --one unusual feature is the presence of pools in almost every house that can afford one. Instead, patios with small pools; this is almost a necessity if you want to re-sell your home, and this helps attract out-of-state buyers thanks to the novelty factor.

Florida has a very diverse population, with some of the largest Black and Hispanic populations of any U.S. state. The Hispanic population here is more Cuban than elsewhere in America (with the state being not too far north from UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}} itself), which affects the state politically since Cuban Floridians historically tend to vote for the Republicans, due to many of the original immigrants' being refugees from Fidel Castro's Communist regime, though their American-born descendants steadily became more Democratic before leaning back to the GOP after 2016. More recently, there has been an influx of refugees from UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}}'s Maduro government, with their own antipathy toward socialism. For decades, Florida's huge population drawn from throughout the country made it a major swing state, most notably in the infamous nail-biter that was the 2000 election. In recent years, however, Florida has become more solidly Republican possibly helped by Donald Trump, like so many aging New Yorkers, setting up his permanent residence in the state during his presidency. In 2018, an otherwise bad year for Republicans across the country, the GOP won very narrow Senate and gubernatorial races against the Democrats (and in the case of the Senate race, ''ousted'' a three-term Democratic incumbent, helped by their nominee being the departing incumbent governor, giving them both Senate seats for the first time since Reconstruction), maintaining their trifecta in the Senate, House of Representatives and Governor's Mansion since 1996. Democrats did carry one statewide office that year, albeit by an ''incredibly'' narrow margin, and flipped two Congressional seats in South Florida. In 2020, Trump improved on his 2016 performance in Florida, especially among (Mestizo) Hispanic voters in the southern part of the state despite losing the presidential election, and the GOP won back both of the House seats they lost the previous cycle. Two years later, the GOP saw even bigger gains. Ron [=DeSantis=], the governor who had barely won in 2018, won a second term by ''nearly 20 percentage points''. GOP incumbents won two of the other three statewide offices and flipped the third, all by similar margins to that of [=DeSantis=]. Marco Rubio was reelected to his US Senate seat by 16 percentage points, and the GOP flipped four US House seats, expanding its majority in the state's delegation. Finally, the GOP gained multiple seats in both houses of the state legislature.

Florida has a very diverse population, with some of the largest Black and Hispanic populations of any U.S. state. The Hispanic population here is more Cuban than elsewhere in America (with the state being not too far north from UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}} itself), which affects the state politically since Cuban Floridians historically tend to vote for the Republicans, due to many of the original immigrants' being refugees from Fidel Castro's Communist regime, though their American-born descendants steadily became more Democratic before leaning back to the GOP after 2016. More recently, there has been an influx of refugees from UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}}'s Maduro government, with their own antipathy toward socialism. For decades, Florida's huge population drawn from throughout the country made it a major swing state, most notably in the infamous nail-biter that was the 2000 election. In recent years, however, Florida has become more solidly Republican possibly helped by Donald Trump, like so many aging New Yorkers, setting up his permanent residence in the state during his presidency. In 2018, an otherwise bad year for Republicans across the country, the GOP won very narrow Senate and gubernatorial races against the Democrats (and in the case of the Senate race, ''ousted'' a three-term Democratic incumbent, helped by their nominee being the departing incumbent governor, giving them both Senate seats for the first time since Reconstruction), maintaining their trifecta in the Senate, House of Representatives and Governor's Mansion since 1996. Democrats did carry one statewide office that year, albeit by an ''incredibly'' narrow margin, and flipped two Congressional seats in South Florida. In 2020, Trump improved on his 2016 performance in Florida, especially among (Mestizo) Hispanic voters in the southern part of the state despite losing the presidential election, and the GOP won back both of the house seats they lost the previous cycle.

Despite the recent tragedy of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy fixing public awareness of hurricanes on UsefulNotes/NewOrleans and New York/UsefulNotes/NewJersey, respectively, Florida is the United States' main punching bag for Mother Nature's fall mood swings. Until Katrina, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was the costliest hurricane in American history, and take a wild guess what state it struck. In 2004, the year before Katrina (which did give Florida a glancing blow -- it was Wilma who hit the Sunshine State the hardest that year), Florida was hammered by not one, but '''''four''''' major hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne), with three of them (all but Ivan) directly hitting Orlando (Ian followed suit in 2022). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, seven of the ten costliest hurricanes in American history gave Florida at least a glancing blow. As a result, Floridians tend to be well-prepared to batten down the hatches and go without electrical power for a while when hurricane season starts up. The big negative: it's nigh-impossible to get homeowner's insurance in the state. It's usually not a concern for tourists, though, falling after the usual summer tourism season and before the fall snowbird migration.

Historically, Florida has always been a little distinct from the rest of the United States. The region was colonized by the Spaniards long before the French and English arrived in the northern parts of the continent[[note]]French Huguenots did attempt to set up a colony at Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville in 1564, but it was raided and destroyed by the Spaniards a year later.[[/note]], and they gave Florida its name: Land of Flowers. Florida's lengthy and Spanish-tinged history are seldom discussed outside of the state, and even then your typical Floridian won't know much beyond a) being taught about Spanish explorers of the state like Hernando de Soto and [[FountainOfYouth Ponce de León]] back in elementary school, and b) the fact that St. Augustine, on Florida's northeast coast, is the oldest continually inhabited city in North America. Great Britain acquired Florida from Spain in 1763, including an extra length from the northern state that was later chopped off and absorbed into Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; Spain got it back for helping America out in [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution the Revolution]], but Americans ([[UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson some]] with government backing) kept raiding the place to try to take it for themselves (and to recapture all of the fugitive Africans who sought refuge in the swamps with native groups). Spain flipped sides in the UsefulNotes/WarOf1812 in part to keep Americans out, but finally gave up trying to defend the mostly unsettled peninsula and signed it away to the U.S. in 1821 in the Adams-Onis Treaty. Of course, that piece of paper didn't mean much to the Seminole people and other native groups who lived in Florida, and U.S. spent the next several decades going to war with the Seminole to claim the peninsula; many of the Seminole would be forcibly relocated to present-day Oklahoma.

Really, "worthless backwater" aptly sums up most of Florida until just before the start of the 20th century, when the construction of the railroads led to increased trade (mostly citrus products, winter vegetables, and cattle) with the North, and the cigar industry developed in Tampa. Following the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar, tourism really picked up, and thanks to the efforts of railroad builders and the mild nature of winter in the state, the first real estate boom led to the development of much of South Florida in the 1920s. Unfortunately, this initial housing boom turned out to be a bubble and its bursting by the end of the decade was one of the major factors leading to TheGreatDepression, which set the state back once again. Following the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, however, the development of air conditioning, highways (in case you haven't realized it, Florida is a ''big'' state for folks traveling north or south)[[note]]Not counting the keys, it's 430 miles north-south; that's half the length of California. Throw in the keys and Florida is just under 550 miles north-south, making it the fourth longest state in the US after Alaska, California, and Texas.[[/note]], and a second real estate boom led to Florida's transformation into the conglomeration of suburbs, beaches, and retirement homes it is today.

Florida has a very diverse population, with some of the largest Black and Hispanic populations of any U.S. state. The Hispanic population here is more Cuban than elsewhere in America (with the state being not too far north from Cuba itself), which affects the state politically since Cuban Floridians historically tend to vote for the Republicans, due to many of the original immigrants' being refugees from Fidel Castro's Communist regime, though their American-born descendants steadily became more Democratic before leaning back to the GOP after 2016. More recently, there has been an influx of refugees from Venezuela's Maduro government, with their own antipathy toward socialism. For decades, Florida's huge population drawn from throughout the country made it a major swing state, most notably in the infamous nail-biter that was the 2000 election. In recent years, however, Florida has become more solidly Republican possibly helped by Donald Trump, like so many aging New Yorkers, setting up his permanent residence in the state during his presidency. In 2018, an otherwise bad year for Republicans across the country, the GOP won very narrow Senate and gubernatorial races against the Democrats (and in the case of the Senate race, ''ousted'' a three-term Democratic incumbent, helped by their nominee being the departing incumbent governor, giving them both Senate seats for the first time since Reconstruction), maintaining their trifecta in the Senate, House of Representatives and Governor's Mansion since 1996. Democrats did carry one statewide office that year, albeit by an ''incredibly'' narrow margin, and flipped two Congressional seats in South Florida. In 2020, Trump improved on his 2016 performance in Florida, especially among (Mestizo) Hispanic voters in the southern part of the state despite losing the presidential election, and the GOP won back both of the house seats they lost the previous cycle.

Despite the recent tragedy of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy fixing public awareness of hurricanes on New Orleans and New York/New Jersey, respectively, Florida is the United States' main punching bag for Mother Nature's fall mood swings. Until Katrina, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was the costliest hurricane in American history, and take a wild guess what state it struck. In 2004, the year before Katrina (which did give Florida a glancing blow -- it was Wilma who hit the Sunshine State the hardest that year), Florida was hammered by not one, but '''''four''''' major hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne), with three of them (all but Ivan) directly hitting Orlando (Ian followed suit in 2022). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, seven of the ten costliest hurricanes in American history gave Florida at least a glancing blow. As a result, Floridians tend to be well-prepared to batten down the hatches and go without electrical power for a while when hurricane season starts up. The big negative: it's nigh-impossible to get homeowner's insurance in the state. It's usually not a concern for tourists, though, falling after the usual summer tourism season and before the fall snowbird migration.

However, not all of Florida's coastline is created equal in terms of vulnerability to hurricanes. One major exception to the rule is the Atlantic coast north of Cape Canaveral. While many storms brush close enough to the region to cause high surf and damage in coastal towns, only ''one'' major hurricane has made direct landfall [[http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/images/strikes_egulf_mjr.jpg since 1900]] -- Hurricane Dora of 1964 -- a consequence of geography (specifically, the indentation in the coastline) sheltering that area, along with coastal Georgia, from hurricanes by giving a very poor track towards landfall. Generally speaking, if a hurricane moves north of Cape Canaveral, it's gonna land up in North Carolina or the Northeast if it doesn't go out to sea. On the other hand, South Florida, followed by the Panhandle, gets a disproportionate share of the hurricanes that do hit the state.

Really, "worthless backwater" aptly sums up most of Florida until just before the start of the 20th century, when the construction of the railroads led to increased trade (mostly citrus products, winter vegetables, and cattle) with the North, and the cigar industry developed in Tampa. Following the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar, tourism really picked up, and thanks to the efforts of railroad builders and the mild nature of winter in the state, the first real estate boom led to the development of much of South Florida in the 1920s. Unfortunately, this initial housing boom turned out to be a bubble and its bursting by the end of the decade was one of the major factors leading to TheGreatDepression, which set the state back once again. Following the end of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, however, the development of air conditioning, highways (in case you haven't realized it, Florida is a ''big'' state for folks traveling north or south)[[note]]Not counting the keys, its 430 miles north-south; that's half the length of California. Throw in the keys and Florida is just under 550 miles north-south, making it the fourth longest state in the US after Alaska, California, and Texas.[[/note]], and a second real estate boom led to Florida's transformation into the conglomeration of suburbs, beaches, and retirement homes it is today.

Despite the recent tragedy of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy fixing public awareness of hurricanes on New Orleans and New York/New Jersey, respectively, Florida is the United States' main punching bag for Mother Nature's fall mood swings. Until Katrina, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was the costliest hurricane in American history, and take a wild guess what state it struck. In 2004, the year before Katrina (which did give Florida a glancing blow -- it was Wilma who hit the Sunshine State the hardest that year), Florida was hammered by not one, but '''''four''''' major hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne), with three of them (all but Ivan) directly hitting Orlando. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, seven of the ten costliest hurricanes in American history gave Florida at least a glancing blow. As a result, Floridians tend to be well-prepared to batten down the hatches and go without electrical power for a while when hurricane season starts up. The big negative: it's nigh-impossible to get homeowner's insurance in the state. It's usually not a concern for tourists, though, falling after the usual summer tourism season and before the fall snowbird migration.

And yes, Charley repeated itself in 2022 with Hurricane Ian. Hit the same part of the state.

Today, there are three distinct Floridas within the state's borders. Old Florida, a proud part of the DeepSouth, is in fact alive and well -- it just occupies inland and northern Florida as well as the panhandle, i.e. the parts of the state tourists don't see (outside of a few resort towns such as Panama City Beach). South Florida exchanged its man card and Southern credibility for lots of money, lots of sprawling suburbia, and lots of northerners (particularly East Coasters from states like New York and New Jersey). This region, especially around UsefulNotes/{{Miami}}, also hosts large communities of Caribbean immigrants and has a distinctly Latin tinge and a working knowledge of Spanish can be a big help (some ''70%'' of Miamians are Hispanic and over 70% of Miamians count a language other than English as their mother tongue: mostly Spanish, but a substantial number report Haitian Creole. It's the highest proportion in the country.). Central Florida, anchored by the Tampa Bay and Orlando metropolitan areas a.k.a the "I-4 Corridor"[[note]]Named after the interstate highway that connects the two cities[[/note]], serves as a bit of a middle ground between the two other regions and has another Northeastern atmosphere. However, some areas also have a Midwestern feel (owing in part to some transplants from that region of the country). YouShouldKnowThisAlready, but tourism is Florida's biggest industry these days (but only just ahead of agriculture) and is, along with UsefulNotes/{{California}}, one of the classic spring break and summer vacation destinations in the United States. Agriculture and phosphate mining are also common, but again are parts of the state that tourists usually don't see.

* '''The Panhandle:''' So called for reasons obvious to anyone looking at a map of the state, the Panhandle is home to Tallahassee, Florida's largely forgettable capital city, with little else of note besides being the home of Florida State University and the historically-black Florida A&M University. Some nice Gulf beaches up here[[note]]Panama City Beach, in particular, has gained a status as a rival to Daytona Beach as one of Florida's biggest spring break destinations[[/note]], a major naval base at Pensacola, and... not much else. Peculiarly, much of the Panhandle is in a different time zone (Central) than the rest of the state, due to the time line being a continuation of the Alabama/Georgia border[[note]]This also makes Florida the geographically easternmost region of the US to be part of the Central Time Zone[[/note]]. It's sometimes grouped with Southern Alabama/Georgia -- indeed, there have been multiple proposals throughout history, going back to before Florida was even part of the United States, to have the Panhandle area split off from the rest of the state and join Alabama.

** Oddly enough, there's not much of a rivalry between the professional teams, although passions do run high between Orlando Magic and Miami Heat fans. A lot of it has to do with most of the pro teams playing in different conferences or divisions with little at stake: there had been only one playoff game between Jacksonville Jaguars the and Miami Dolphins, for example. Most pro team rivalries (Dolphins vs. AFC East, Bucs vs. NFC South in football; Marlins vs. Braves, Rays vs. Yankees and Red Sox in baseball) are with out-of-state opponents. The Lightning and Panthers ''do'' share a division, but have not met in the playoffs until 2021. As for MLS, Orlando City and Inter Miami haven't had much time to establish a rivalry, with Inter only having started play in 2020, though the two teams have created a rivalry trophy, the Everglades Cup.

* NativeAmericanCasino: They're operated by the Seminole tribe.

* ProfessionalWrestling: One of the top companies in the US, Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling, is headquartered in Jacksonville and owned by Tony Khan, whose father Shahid owns the Jacksonville Jaguars (as well as Fulham in the UsefulNotes/EnglishPremierLeague). The other two top companies in the US have their corporate headquarters elsewhere (Wrestling/{{WWE}} in Stamford, Connecticut and [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] in Nashville, Tennessee), but have strong ties to the state. TNA previous held all of their weekly shows at the "Impact Zone", a soundstage at Universal Studios in Orlando before taking the show on the road. WWE's developmental program, NXT, recently opened a new performance center in Orlando, after having it previously under the title of Florida Championship Wrestling in Tampa (this is especially interesting as the two companies categorically do '''NOT''' get along.) Also, because of this (and also Florida's lack of a state income tax), a large number of wrestlers: current, former, and upcoming, now call Florida home (though, for the sake of variety, most are billed from their childhood home, such as current Tampa native John Cena still being billed from his childhood home in West Newbury, Massachusetts.)
** From the 1950s to 1987, there was a major Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance territory in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championship_Wrestling_from_Florida Florida]]. The list of people who wrestled and/or managed here is too long to include here. Wrestling/HulkHogan, Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Wrestling/RonSimmons, Wrestling/KevinSullivan and Wrestling/TerryFunk are just the BEGINNING.

* TrailerParkTornadoMagnet: Oh, yes. They also tend to be in flooding zones.