Orlando, Florida Totally Explained

Everything about Orlando Florida totally explained

The city of Orlando is a major city in central Florida, USA and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida. It is also the principal city of Greater Orlando. The Orlando-Kissimmee MSA is Florida's third-largest metropolitan area, behind Miami and Tampa. Orlando is also home to the University of Central Florida, which is the second largest university in Florida in student enrollment and has the 6th largest enrollment in the nation. The city is well known for the many tourist attractions in the area, in particular the nearby Walt Disney World Resort, which is located in Lake Buena Vista about south of Orlando city limits via Interstate 4. Other notable area attractions include SeaWorld and Universal Orlando Resort. The region sees an estimated 52 million tourists a year. Orlando has the second largest number of hotel rooms in the country (after Las Vegas, Nevada), and is one of the busiest American cities for conferences and conventions with the Orange County Convention Center, the country's second largest in square footage. It is also known for its wide array of golf courses, with numerous courses available for any level of golfer. Despite being several miles away from the main tourist attractions, Downtown Orlando is undergoing major redevelopment with a number of residential and commercial towers.
The city symbol is the fountain of Lake Eola and the current mayor is Buddy Dyer.

History

Some historians date Orlando's name to around 1837 when a soldier named Orlando Reeves allegedly died in that area of Orlando, during the war against the Seminole Indian tribe. It seems, however, that Orlando Reeves (sometimes Rees) operated a sugar mill and plantation about 30 miles (50 km) to the north at Spring Garden in Volusia County, and pioneer settlers simply found his name carved into a tree and assumed it was a marker for his grave site. They then referred to the area as "Orlando's grave" and later simply "Orlando."
   During the Second Seminole War, the U.S. Army established an outpost at Fort Gatlin, a few miles south of the modern downtown, in 1838. But it was quickly abandoned when the war came to an end.
   Prior to being known as its current name, Orlando was known as Jernigan, after the first permanent settler, cattleman Aaron Jernigan, who acquired land along Lake Holden by the terms of the Armed Occupation Act of 1842. But most pioneers didn't arrive until after the Third Seminole War in the 1850s. Most of the early residents made their living by cattle racing.
   Orlando remained a rural backwater during the American Civil War, and suffered greatly during the Union blockade. The Reconstruction Era brought a population explosion, which led to the city's incorporation in 1875.
   The period from 1875 to 1895 is remembered as Orlando's "Gilded Era," when it became the hub of Florida's citrus industry. But the Great Freeze in 1894-1895 forced many owners to give up their independent groves, thus consolidating holdings in the hands of a few "citrus barons" which shifted operations south, primarily around Lake Wales in Polk County.
   There are a couple of notable homesteaders in the area. First is the Curry family. On their property in east Orlando there was the Econlockhatchee River and every time it had to be crossed the settlers would "ford the river". This lends its name to one of Orlando's roads, Curry Ford Rd. Also, just south of the airport in the Boggy Creek area was of property homesteaded in the late 1800s by the Ward family. This property is still owned by the Ward family and can be seen from flights out of MCO southbound immediately on the south side of SR-417.
   Orlando, as Florida's largest inland city, became a popular resort during the years between the Spanish-American War and World War I. The city was also host to several SKEET, which serves as the basis for its hospitals today.
   In the 1920s Orlando experienced a large housing boom. Land prices soared. During this period several neighborhoods in downtown were constructed leaving behind many bungalows. The boom ended when several hurricanes hit Florida in the late 20s and by the depression.
   During World War II, a number of Army personnel were stationed at the Orlando Army Air Base and nearby Pinecastle Army Air Field. Some of these servicemen stayed in Orlando to settle and raise families. In 1956 the aerospace/defense company Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) established a plant in Orlando. Orlando AAB and Pinecastle AAF were transferred to the United States Air Force in 1947 when it became a separate service and were redesignated as Air Force Bases (AFB). In 1958 Pinecastle AFB was renamed McCoy Air Force Base after Colonel Michael N.W. McCoy, a former commander of the 320th Bombardment Wing at the installation, killed in the crash of a B-47 Stratojet bomber, north of Orlando. In the 1960s, the base subsequently became home to the 306th Bombardment Wing of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), operating B-52 Stratofortress and KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft, in addition to detachment operations by EC-121 and U-2 aircraft.
   Orlando is close enough to Patrick Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Kennedy Space Center for residents to commute to work from the city's suburbs. It also allows easy access to Port Canaveral, an important cruise ship terminal. Because of its proximity to the "Space Coast" near the Kennedy Space Center, many high-tech companies have shifted to the Orlando area.
   Perhaps the most critical event for Orlando's economy occurred in 1965 when Walt Disney announced plans to build Walt Disney World. Although Walt had considered the regions of Miami and Tampa for his park, one of the major reasons behind his decision not to locate there was due to hurricanes. Orlando's inland location (although not free from hurricanes) wouldn't expose it to an increased threat like coastal locations. The famous vacation resort opened in October 1971, ushering in an explosive population and economic growth for the Orlando metropolitan area, which now encompasses Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Lake counties. As a result, tourism became the centerpiece of the area's economy and Orlando is consistently ranked as one of the top vacation destinations in the world, now boasting more theme parks and entertainment attractions than anywhere else in the world.
   Another major factor in Orlando's growth occurred in 1962, when the new Orlando Jetport, the precursor of the present day Orlando International Airport, was built from a portion of the McCoy Air Force Base. By 1970, four major airlines (Delta Air Lines, National Airlines, Eastern Airlines and Southern Airways) were providing scheduled flights. McCoy Air Force Base officially closed in 1975, and most of it's now part of the airport. The airport still retains the former Air Force Base airport code (MCO). In addition to McCoy Air Force Base, Orlando also had a naval presence with the establishment of Naval Training Center Orlando on the former Orlando AFB in 1968. The newest of three Naval Training Centers in the United States providing training to recruits, as well as being a base for selected post basic training programs for enlisted personnel, NTC Orlando also conducted nuclear power training for commissioned officers and the base had a prominent presence in the area. In 1993, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission ordered that NTC Orlando be closed, along with a companion installation, NTC San Diego. NTC Orlando continued in a diminished capacity until the base closed for good in 1999 with the last graduates of the base's Naval Nuclear Power School leaving in December of 1998. The former base has been developed into tracts for upscale housing called Baldwin Park. Other than Reserve and National Guard activities, the Orlando area's remaining military presence is the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division/Naval Support Activity Orlando, located just east of the city limits in the Central Florida Research Park.. The U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO-STRI), the U.S. Marine Corps' Program Manager for Training Systems (PMTRASYS) and the U.S. Air Force's Agency for Modeling and Simulation are also collocated at that location.
   The SunTrust Center, the tallest building in Orlando at 441 ft (134 m), was built in 1988. The next tallest buildings are the Orange County Courthouse (1997, ./127 m), the Bank of America Center (Formerly Barnett Plaza, 1988, ./123 m), Solaire at the Plaza (2006, ./109 m) and the Orlando International Airport ATC Tower (2002, ./105 m). The VUE at Lake Eola, currently under construction, will become the second-tallest building in Orlando upon completion at 426 ft (130 m) tall, but with 35 stories it'll have more stories than the SunTrust Center. The SeaWorld SkyTower, at 400 ft (122 m) tall, is the tallest tower in Orange County outside Orlando proper. There are also several tall transmission towers in Orange County, the tallest of which is the WFTV transmission tower in Christmas at 1,617 ft (491.6 m) tall.
   In the hurricane season of 2004, Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne battered the Orlando area, causing widespread damage and flooding and impeding tourism to the area.

Geography

Topography

Orlando is located at (28.533513, -81.375789). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 261.5 km² (110 mi²). 242.2 km² (93.5 mi²) of it's land and 19.3 km² (7.5 mi²) of it (7.39%) is water. Orlando is, on average, above sea level.

Climate

Orlando has a warm and humid subtropical climate, and there are two major seasons each year. One of those seasons is hot and rainy, lasting from May until October (roughly coinciding with the Atlantic hurricane season). The other is a cooler season (November through March) that brings more moderate temperatures and less frequent rainfall. The area's warm and humid climate is caused primarily by its low elevation and its position relatively close to the Tropic of Cancer, and much of its weather is affected by the movement of the Gulf Stream.
During the height of Orlando's very humid summer season, temperatures rarely fall below 70 °F (21 °C), and daytime highs average in the 90s (32-37 °C). Although the city rarely records temperatures over 100 °F (38 °C), extreme humidity often pushes the heat index to over 110 °F (45 °C). The city's highest recorded temperature is 102 °F (39 °C), set in 1998. During these months, strong afternoon thunderstorms occur almost daily. These storms are caused by air masses from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean colliding over Central Florida, and they often bring high wind, damaging hail, heavy rainfall (sometimes several inches per hour), and violent lightning.
During the winter season, humidity is lower and temperatures are more moderate, and can fluctuate more readily. Average nighttime lows in January are around 50 °F (10 °C), and average daytime highs are about 72 °F (22 °C). Temperatures rarely reach below 32 °F (0 °C), though the city can drop below freezing once or twice a year. Because the winter season is dry and most freezing temperatures occur after cold fronts (and their accompanying precipitation) have passed, Orlando experiences no real snowfall. Although no measurable amount of snow has ever fallen (though areas just west recorded up to 2" in 1977), trace amounts were officially observed on December 23, 1989, and trace flurries of ocean effect snow were also reported in nearby coastal Brevard County on January 24, 2003. (External Link

) The average annual rainfall in Orlando is 50.1 in. (128 cm), most of it occurring in the period from June to September. The months of December through May are Orlando's driest season. During this period (especially in its later months), there's often a wildfire hazard. During some years, fires have been severe. In 1998, an El Niño condition caused a usually wet January and February, followed by drought throughout the spring and early summer, causing a record wildfire season that created Greater Orlando's first instances of unhealthy air quality alerts.
Orlando has a considerable hurricane risk, although it isn't as high as it's in South Florida's urban corridor or other coastal regions. Since the city is located 42 miles (68 km) inland from the Atlantic and 77 miles (124 km) inland from the Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes usually weaken before arriving. Storm surges are not a concern since the region is 100 ft (30 m) above sea level. Despite its location, the city does see strong hurricanes. During the notorious 2004 hurricane season, Orlando was hit by three hurricanes that caused significant damage, with Hurricane Charley the worst of these. The city also experienced widespread damage during Hurricane Donna in 1960. NOTE: The record high of 102 °F (39 °C) was recorded at Orlando International Airport, and is available from AccuWeather.com

. (historical data from July is only visible in July and August unless you buy into their premium services) WeatherBase only uses historical data recorded at Orlando Executive Airport. Both airports have official National Weather Service recording stations.

Cityscape

Neighborhoods

The city of Orlando has many neighborhoods in the city limits, some of which are:

Airport North
Audubon Park
Azalea Park
Baldwin Park
Callahan
Central Business District
College Park
Colonialtown North
Colonialtown South
Conway

Coytown

Crescent Park

Delaney Park

Florida Center

Florida Center North

Hunter's Creek

Johnson Village

Lake Cherokee Historic District

Lake Davis/Greenwood

Lake Eola Heights

Lake Formosa

Lake Nona

Lake Richmond

Meadow Woods

Metro West

Mercy Dr.

Millennia

Park Central

Park Lake/Highland

Parramore

Palomar

Randall Park

Rock Lake

Rosemont

Richmond Heights

Roosevelt Park

Southchase

South Semoran

Stonewall Jackson

Thornton Park

Ventura

Wadeview Park

Washington Shores

Waterford Lakes

Metropolitan Statistical Area

Orlando is the hub city of the Orlando-Kissimmee, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area, colloquially known as "Greater Orlando" or "Metro Orlando". The area encompasses four counties (Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake), and is currently the 27th-largest metro area in the United States with a 2007 Census-estimated population of 2,032,496.
When Combined Statistical Areas were instituted in 2000, Orlando was initially joined together with The Villages, Florida, Micropolitan Statistical Area, to form the Orlando-The Villages, Florida, Combined Statistical Area. In 2006, the metropolitan areas of Deltona (Volusia County) and Palm Coast (Flagler County) were added to create the Orlando-Deltona-Daytona Beach, Florida, Combined Statistical Area. This new larger CSA carries a total population (as of 2007) of 2,693,552, and carries three of the 25 fastest-growing counties in the nation--Flagler ranks 1st; Osceola, 17th; and Lake, 23rd.
The metro area is one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation, and the surrounding counties, such as Polk, Brevard and Marion, are also seeing high growth rates.

Suburbs

Northwest: Apopka, Mount Dora, Eustis, Tavares, Leesburg, The Villages	North: Eatonville, Maitland, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Sanford, Deltona, Longwood, Bunnell, Lake Mary	Northeast: Casselberry, Oviedo, Winter Springs, Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Palm Coast
West: Ocoee, Winter Garden, Gotha, Windermere, Clermont, Oakland, Bushnell	ORLANDO	East: Bithlo, Union Park, Wedgefield, Eastwood
Southwest: Lake Buena Vista, Celebration, Citrus Ridge, Doctor Phillips	South: Edgewood, Belle Isle, Kissimmee, Poinciana, Meadow Woods	Southeast: Saint Cloud, Harmony, Holopaw, Yeehaw Junction

Demographics

Further Information

Get more info on 'Orlando Florida'.

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