Data study · updated 2026-09-15
The Florida Salt-Air Exposure Index
We clean windows for a living on both Florida coasts — so we measured the thing that dirties them. Using 11,524+ real service records, we ranked 68 cities by how close their homes actually sit to open salt water.
The 15 saltiest cities we serve
Closest to open water first. “Service locations” is the number of distinct properties in our books — a proxy for how much glass is actually living in that air.
| # | City | Miles to open coast | Salt zone | Service locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lighthouse Point | 0.3 | Direct Spray | 250 |
| 2 | Miami Beach | 0.3 | Direct Spray | 67 |
| 3 | Holmes Beach | 0.3 | Direct Spray | 41 |
| 4 | Boynton Beach | 0.5 | Direct Spray | 57 |
| 5 | St. Pete Beach | 0.5 | Direct Spray | 55 |
| 6 | Belleair | 0.7 | Direct Spray | 40 |
| 7 | Delray Beach | 0.8 | Direct Spray | 204 |
| 8 | Venice | 0.8 | Direct Spray | 50 |
| 9 | Boca Raton | 0.9 | Direct Spray | 632 |
| 10 | Key Biscayne | 0.9 | Direct Spray | 92 |
| 11 | North Palm Beach | 0.9 | Direct Spray | 75 |
| 12 | New Port Richey | 1.1 | High Haze | 63 |
| 13 | Lake Worth Beach | 1.1 | High Haze | 51 |
| 14 | Largo | 1.3 | High Haze | 34 |
| 15 | West Palm Beach | 1.4 | High Haze | 288 |
Every city, by salt zone
Airborne salt lands on glass daily. Film builds in days, corrosion risk on frames and screens is highest.
- Lighthouse Point (0.3 mi)
- Miami Beach (0.3 mi)
- Holmes Beach (0.3 mi)
- Boynton Beach (0.5 mi)
- St. Pete Beach (0.5 mi)
- Belleair (0.7 mi)
- Delray Beach (0.8 mi)
- Venice (0.8 mi)
- Boca Raton (0.9 mi)
- Key Biscayne (0.9 mi)
- North Palm Beach (0.9 mi)
Salt haze carries on sea breeze most afternoons. Glass dulls in 1–2 weeks without rinsing.
- New Port Richey (1.1 mi)
- Lake Worth Beach (1.1 mi)
- Largo (1.3 mi)
- West Palm Beach (1.4 mi)
- Tarpon Springs (1.4 mi)
- Jupiter (1.5 mi)
- Deerfield Beach (1.5 mi)
- Clearwater (1.5 mi)
- Hollywood (1.8 mi)
- Pompano Beach (2.2 mi)
- Oakland Park (2.2 mi)
- Fort Lauderdale (2.5 mi)
- Dunedin (2.5 mi)
- Wilton Manors (2.5 mi)
Salt arrives with onshore wind and storms. Buildup is seasonal rather than constant.
- Palm Harbor (3.1 mi)
- Sarasota (3.4 mi)
- Miami (3.7 mi)
- Fish Hawk (4.1 mi)
- North Miami (4.2 mi)
- Miami Shores (4.4 mi)
- Cutler Bay (6.3 mi)
- Miramar (7.0 mi)
- Palmetto Bay (7.1 mi)
- Coral Gables (7.2 mi)
- Davie (7.5 mi)
- St. Petersburg (7.6 mi)
- Saint Petersburg (7.6 mi)
- Bradenton (7.7 mi)
- Pinecrest (7.8 mi)
Salt is occasional — but sprinkler hard water and pollen usually take its place.
- Plantation (8.1 mi)
- South Miami (8.4 mi)
- Palmetto (8.8 mi)
- Hialeah (9.6 mi)
- Oldsmar (9.6 mi)
- Parkland (9.8 mi)
- Pembroke Pines (10.4 mi)
- Coral Springs (11.5 mi)
- Miami Lakes (11.7 mi)
- Odessa (11.8 mi)
- Wellington (12.4 mi)
- Lakewood Ranch (13.0 mi)
- Land O' Lakes (17.9 mi)
- Weston (18.1 mi)
- Lutz (18.5 mi)
- Parrish (18.6 mi)
- Tampa (21.4 mi)
- Apollo Beach (21.7 mi)
- Wesley Chapel (23.0 mi)
- Palm Beach (25.3 mi)
- Seminole (27.1 mi)
- Riverview (27.6 mi)
- Brandon (31.4 mi)
- Lithia (33.1 mi)
- Zephyrhills (33.6 mi)
- Valrico (34.5 mi)
- Windermere (49.9 mi)
- Lakeland (50.0 mi)
What salt zone means for your windows
Salt is hygroscopic — it pulls moisture out of the air and holds it against glass, screens, and frames. In Direct Spray and High Haze zones that film rebuilds within days of a cleaning, which is why coastal homes on a quarterly-or-better rinse cadence keep their glass (and screens, tracks, and paint) dramatically longer than annual-clean homes.
Pure-water cleaning matters more near the coast: deionized water dissolves and carries salt off the glass instead of smearing it around, and leaves nothing behind for the next sea breeze to stick to. The full explanation lives in our guide: Salt Air & Your Windows.
Methodology (and honest limits)
- Source: 11,524+ Fresh Frames service records (September 2026 snapshot), aggregated to city level — no addresses or personal information are published. Cities with fewer than 30 service locations are excluded; the 68 ranked cities cover 10,474 locations.
- Distance is measured from each city's center (OpenStreetMap geocoding) to the nearest point on the open Atlantic or Gulf shoreline. Bays and the Intracoastal are not counted as open coast, so bayfront cities like Tampa read more “inland” than their waterfront homes feel — the index is deliberately conservative.
- City centers hide spread: a city can span multiple zones street by street. Our estimator checks your exact address when you request a quote.
- Cite freely with a link (CC BY 4.0): “Fresh Frames Florida Salt-Air Exposure Index, 2026-09-15.” Journalists and researchers can request the underlying city-level table at leads@freshframeswindows.com.
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