The Key West Mystique

Key West Island News

 

Key West Island News connects Key West residents and friends of the island, fosters our One Human Family culture and advances understanding of shared goals for our island community

Where the heck IS Key West?

Where the heck IS Key West?

Where the heck IS Key West?

By Linda Grist Cunningham, editor and proprietor

Linda Grist Cunningham is editor and proprietor of Key West Island News and KeyWestWatch Media LLC. She and her husband, a park ranger at Fort Zach, live in Key West with their Cat 5s.


09/08/2017

Key West Island NewsWhere is Key West? Thought a little geography lesson might be helpful. See that blue dot down at the bottom? That’s Key West. Our island is 163.8 miles southwest of Miami. Tampa on the west coast is closer to Melbourne on the east coast (145 miles) than Key West is to Miami.

Even in monster hurricane language our 163.8 miles is a long way. Folks forget (or don’t know) just how far out in the Atlantic Key West is. The island is also on higher ground (relatively speaking) than the middle and upper Keys and the southern tip of Florida.

That’s why we monitor this storm differently. Just because a forecast says the hurricane is coming ashore in Miami doesn’t mean Key West takes a direct hit. It’s not much, but it’s a bit of breathing room and it affects decisions we make.

Key West Island News logo

Florida Keys Weather

clear sky 84° F 84° F | 86° F 11.01 m/h 79 %
  • Oct 15, 2026 few clouds 80° F|92° F
  • Oct 16, 2026 light rain 78° F|82° F
  • Oct 17, 2026 light rain 79° F|81° F

0 Comments

Related Posts

What does Key West look like? Depends on who’s doing the looking

What does Key West look like? Depends on who’s doing the looking

by | Oct 1, 2026

What does Key West look like? And we answer it every time a proposed renovation or major development project drop its AI-generated drawings, “But that doesn’t look like Key West.” I’m of the mind that Key West looks exactly like what we are, a weirdly cobbled together accumulation of architecture that changed each time residents felt flush with cash and an itch to expand.

What’s in a name? The new “old Publix” and the old “new Publix”

What’s in a name? The new “old Publix” and the old “new Publix”

by | Sep 24, 2026

You can stick up all the signs you want, even change U.S. maps, and folks are still going to call it the way they learned it. Take that quarter-mile concrete pier at the end of Key West’s White Street. Rebranded in June 2016 as the Edward B. Knight Pier, it remains the White Street Pier. Humans ain’t much fond of changing up words just for the heck of it. So what do we do with Old and New Publix?

Pin It on Pinterest