Physical Characteristics. Charlotte County is in southwest Florida, north of Ft. Myers, and is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, Charlotte Harbor, and Sarasota, DeSoto, Glades, and Lee counties. The county has 690.02 square miles of land and 126.63 square miles of water for a total of 816.65 square miles. The average January temperature is 64.0 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average August temperature is 81.9 degrees Fahrenheit. The average annual rainfall is 52.55 inches.
History. Charlotte County was established in 1921 from a portion of DeSoto County and named for Charlotte Harbor. Charlotte may be a corruption of Carlos or Calos, words associated with the Calusa, the Indian group in southwest Florida at the time of Spanish contact. During the 1970's Charlotte County became one of Florida's fastest growing counties.
