North Florida in the context of "South Florida"

The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on plantations and slavery, generally Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. East Texas, North Florida, the Arkansas Delta, South Arkansas, West Tennessee, and the southern part of North Carolina are sometimes included as well. Following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the region experienced significant economic hardship and became a focal point of racial tension during and after the Reconstruction era.

Before 1945, the Deep South was often referred to as the "Cotton States" since cotton was the primary cash crop for economic production. The civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s helped usher in a new era, sometimes referred to as the New South. The Deep South is part of the highly religious, socially conservative Bible Belt and currently is politically a stronghold of the Republican Party, after historically being one for the Democratic Party.

The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season was the final year in a string of three consecutive very active seasons since 2010, with 19 tropical storms. The 2012 season was also a costly one in terms of property damage, mostly due to Hurricane Sandy. The season officially began on June 1 and ended on November 30, dates that conventionally delimit the period during each year in which most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Ocean. However, Alberto, the first named system of the year, developed on May 19 – the earliest date of formation since Subtropical Storm Andrea in 2007. A second tropical cyclone, Beryl, developed later that month. This was the first occurrence of two pre-season named storms in the Atlantic basin since 1951. It moved ashore in North Florida on May 29 with winds of 65 mph (105 km/h), making it the strongest pre-season storm to make landfall in the Atlantic basin. This season marked the first time since 2009 where no tropical cyclones formed in July. Another record was set by Hurricane Nadine later in the season; the system became the fourth-longest-lived tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic, with a total duration of 22.25 days. The final storm to form, Tony, dissipated on October 25, and the season came to a close when Hurricane Sandy became extratropical on October 29.

Pre-season forecasts by the Colorado State University (CSU) called for a below average season, with 10 named storms, 4 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its first outlook on May 24, predicting a total of 9–15 named storms, 4–8 hurricanes, and 1–3 major hurricanes; both agencies noted the possibility of an El Niño, which limits tropical cyclone activity. Following two pre-season storms, the CSU updated their forecast to 13 named storms, 5 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes, while the NOAA upped their forecast numbers to 12–17 named storms, 5–8 hurricanes, and 2–3 major hurricanes on August 9. Despite this, activity far surpassed the predictions.

Jacksonville (US: /ˈdʒæksənˌvɪl/ JAK-sən-vil) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city consolidated in 1968. It is the tenth-most populous U.S. city and the largest city in the Southeast, with a population of 949,611 at the official 2020 U.S. census. The Jacksonville metropolitan area, at over 1.76 million residents, is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Florida and 38th-largest in the United States. City-county consolidation greatly increased Jacksonville's official population and extended its boundaries, placing most of Duval County's population within the new municipal limits; Jacksonville grew to 900 square miles (2,300 km). It is the largest city by total area, land and water, in the contiguous United States.

Jacksonville straddles the St. Johns River in the First Coast region of northeastern Florida, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of the Georgia state line (25 mi or 40 km to the urban core/downtown) and 350 miles (560 km) north of Miami. The Jacksonville Beaches communities lie along the adjacent Atlantic coast. The area was originally inhabited by the Timucua. During Spanish rule, several missions were established in the Jacksonville area; the most prominent locally was San Juan del Puerto on present-day Fort George Island, which served the Mocama Timucua. In 1564, the French founded the short-lived Fort Caroline near the mouth of the St. Johns River. During the brief period of British rule (1763–1783), a settlement developed at a narrow point on the river where cattle crossed, known as Wacca Pilatka to the Seminole and "Cow Ford" to the British. In 1822, a year after Spain ceded Florida to the United States under the Adams–Onís Treaty, in exchange for U.S. recognition of Spanish sovereignty in Texas, a platted town was established there and named for Andrew Jackson, the first military governor of the Florida Territory and the seventh president of the United States.

Wakulla County is a county located in the Big Bend region in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,764. Its county seat is Crawfordville. Wakulla County is part of the Tallahassee, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Wakulla County has a near-absence of any municipal population, with two small municipalities holding about 3% of the population. The county seat, Crawfordville, is one of only two unincorporated county seats among Florida's 67 counties.

The Jacksonville Metropolitan Area, also called the First Coast, Metro Jacksonville, or Northeast Florida, is the metropolitan area centered on the principal city of Jacksonville, Florida and including the First Coast of North Florida. As of the 2020 census, the total population was 1,605,848. The Jacksonville–Kingsland–Palatka, FL–GA Combined Statistical Area (CSA) had a population of 1,733,937 in 2020 and was the 34th largest CSA in the United States. The Jacksonville metropolitan area is the 40th largest in the country and the fourth largest in the State of Florida, behind the Miami, Tampa, and Orlando metropolitan areas.

Taylor County is a county located in the Big Bend region in the northern part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,796. Its county seat is Perry. The county hosts the annual Florida Forest Festival and has been long known as the "Tree Capital of the South" since a 1965 designation from then-Governor W. Haydon Burns.

The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States and the Midwestern state of Missouri (which also has significant Southern influence), where evangelical Protestantism exerts a strong social and cultural influence. The region has been described as the most socially conservative across the United States due to a significant impact of Protestant Christianity on politics and culture. The region is known to have a higher church attendance, more evangelical Protestant denominations, and greater emphasis on traditional religious values compared to other parts of the country. The region contrasts with the religiously diverse Midwest and Great Lakes and the Mormon corridor in Utah, southern Idaho, and northern Arizona.

Whereas the states with the highest percentage of residents identifying as non-religious are in the West and New England regions of the United States (with Vermont at 37%, ranking the highest), in the Bible Belt state of Alabama it is just 12%, while Tennessee has the highest proportion of evangelical Protestants, at 52%. The evangelical influence is strongest in Alabama, Georgia, North Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, southern Missouri, Western North Carolina, the Upstate region of South Carolina, Oklahoma, North Louisiana, northern and eastern Texas, southern and western Virginia, and West Virginia.