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West Palm Beach Mosquito Forecast

Today's mosquito activity in West Palm Beach, the week ahead, and what to do about it. Updated hourly.

Bite Index · Sunday, November 8

Severe

Severe mosquito activity in West Palm Beach today and easing through the week. Expect to be bitten within minutes outdoors at dusk.

Swarming conditions. Expect bites within a minute or two outside at dusk.

Worse than a typical November in Palm Beach County (usually around 66).

  • 6.9 in. of rain Oct 25–Nov 1 has had time to hatch: this is the surge from that storm.
  • Two weeks averaging 77°F is ideal breeding weather: egg to biting adult in about a week.
  • Tonight: a 74°F evening, light wind — good flying weather for mosquitoes.

The week ahead

Each day's Bite Index, from this week's weather and the rain that is still hatching. Forecast days get less certain as the week goes on.

  1. Today
    97Severe85°/68°dry
  2. Mon
    97Severe82°/67°dry
  3. Tue
    97Severe81°/72°0.1 in
  4. Wed
    97Severe81°/74°0.5 in
  5. Thu
    96Severe84°/72°0.1 in
  6. Fri
    83Severe76°/61°dry
  7. Sat
    60High64°/54°dry

Protect tonight

Treat the outdoors like a swarm: cover up and use a full-strength repellent.

  1. 25–30% DEET or 20% picaridin on every bit of exposed skin, plus permethrin-treated clothing for anything longer than a quick trip outside.
  2. Keep kids and pets in around dusk and dawn; schedule outdoor time for midday when it's hottest and driest.
  3. If your health department has an active West Nile advisory for your ZIP, follow it over anything on this page.
Which repellent, and how much: DEET vs picaridinBest natural repellents

Why West Palm Beach's mosquitoes do what they do

West Palm Beach sits between the Atlantic and the Everglades, with Lake Okeechobee's drainage canals running through the county and a climate that never gets cold enough to stop mosquitoes. Palm Beach County Mosquito Control sprays by truck and air, and the health department issued a mosquito-borne disease advisory in the fall of 2025 after West Nile cases.

  • Everglades edge and canals: the western communities sit on drained wetland, with floodwater species in every wet season.
  • Container breeders: Aedes aegypti thrives in the dense coastal neighborhoods year-round.
  • Wet season: near-daily storms from late May through October.
  • No winter: Palm Beach County's season gate is open from March to December.

A typical year in Palm Beach County

What the Bite Index typically reads here each month, from Palm Beach County's 30-year climate normals run through the same model as today's number. The month you're in is marked; the season map shows the same long-run picture for every county.

  1. JJanuary: 25
  2. FFebruary: 25
  3. MMarch: 53
  4. AApril: 65
  5. MMay: 77
  6. JJune: 86
  7. JJuly: 86
  8. AAugust: 86
  9. SSeptember: 86
  10. OOctober: 83
  11. NNovember: 66
  12. DDecember: 51

Local surveillance and West Nile virus

The Bite Index measures nuisance biting, not disease. Palm Beach County's health department traps and tests mosquitoes through the season and publishes positive West Nile pools by ZIP code. When your ZIP has an active advisory, follow it regardless of today's number.

How the Bite Index is scored

The index is a model of conditions, not a mosquito count. Warmth and water set the size of the population, tonight's weather sets how much of it flies, and the season and local reports adjust the result. Every factor and today's value for it is listed here so you can check the number yourself. Warmth and Water are exactly the climate core of our county-level mosquito season map; the map shows that core on 30-year normals for every county, and “typical for this month” is the same model run on this county's normals, so the comparison is like for like.

WWater

Rain over the egg-to-adult window (6.9 in. between Oct 25 and Nov 1), expressed as a monthly rate on the same wetness curve the season map uses. At summer temperatures eggs become biting adults in about a week, so today's mosquitoes are last week's rain. Cool weather stretches the window; hot dry days shrink it. Irrigation, creeks and pools keep a 35% floor even in a drought.

Role scales
Today 100%

TWarmth

The trailing two-week average temperature on the season map's curve: nothing below 50°F, full speed at 78–88°F, a small penalty in extreme heat. Multiplied with Water, so a cool fortnight caps the index however wet it has been.

Role gates
Today 97%

ATonight

Whether the population that exists will actually fly and bite this evening: dusk temperature (65–85°F is ideal), wind (they stop flying around 10 mph), humidity, and rain around sunset. Scales the index between half and full.

Role 0.5–1×
Today 100%

GGround truth

A nudge from local trap counts and reports when we have them. For West Palm Beach this is neutral today; the health department's surveillance is linked above and will feed this factor as we wire it in.

Role ±15%
Today neutral

SSeason gate

A multiplier from the calendar: fully open in the city's season months, half-open in the shoulder months, nearly closed in deep winter unless the week is warm. Below a 50°F weekly average the index is simply 0.

Role ×
Today 100%

index = 100 × S × [T × (0.35 + 0.65·W)] × (0.5 + 0.5·A) × (1 + 0.15·G)

Bands: Low 0–20 · Moderate 21–40 · High 41–60 · Very High 61–80 · Severe 81–100. Weather is from Open-Meteo (observations and the 7-day forecast), refreshed hourly. The lag and temperature thresholds follow published work on Culex and Aedes development (Rueda et al. 1990; Cornell NRCC degree-day emergence; JAMCA 2024 on rainfall two to four weeks before trap peaks).

Questions people ask about mosquitoes in West Palm Beach

When is mosquito season in West Palm Beach?
All year, peaking from June through October. A cool, dry January reduces them but never stops them.
Why are the western communities so much worse?
Wellington, Loxahatchee and the Glades sit on drained Everglades, and the wet season floods the fields and canals that surround them. The county's aerial spraying focuses there.
Is West Nile or dengue a risk in Palm Beach County?
Both have been detected locally; the health department issued an advisory in 2025. Its advisories are authoritative; follow them over the index.
Where does this forecast's data come from?
Open-Meteo weather for downtown West Palm Beach, scored by our documented model and compared with Palm Beach County's season-map climatology. Not a trap count.

Also covers Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens, Loxahatchee, Lake Worth Beach: the forecast point is central West Palm Beach, and conditions within about 30 miles track it closely. Weather fetched Nov 8, 5:28 PM local time.

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