Weather in New Orleans in April

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, April is the one. Highs average 24.1 °C, lows 17.6 °C, and rain falls on 9 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

April ranks 4 of 12 in New Orleans: past the worst of the year but short of November, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 9 days, 4 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average April reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest April day reached 30.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 5.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 92 mm — roughly 72% of the month's rain in one day.

April is moderately variable: 13 mm in the driest year against 311 mm in the wettest, around an average of 128 mm. Roughly two Aprils in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 79%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How April sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 3.4 °C warmer than March, and May adds another 3.4 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in April

12.9 hours of daylight, gaining 0.9 hours across the month. That is between New Orleans's extremes of 14.1 and 10.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 22.3 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, February is the trade worth considering — 13 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

April in New Orleans versus nearby

If New Orleans is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Baton Rouge is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days. Mobile is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: April is effectively as good as it gets here — 3 points behind November, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in New Orleans

See all twelve months in New Orleans, or where else to go in April.