Weather in New Orleans in March

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, March is the one. Highs average 20.7 °C, lows 13.9 °C, and rain falls on 9 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

March ranks 2 of 12 in New Orleans. Only November scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain on 9 days, 3 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 March reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 27.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 0.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 73 mm — roughly 70% of the month's rain in one day.

March is moderately variable: 11 mm in the driest year against 216 mm in the wettest, around an average of 104 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 12.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 80%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 3.2 °C warmer than February, and April 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 March

11.9 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.

March 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, 1 day more rain. Mobile is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: March is effectively as good as it gets here — 2 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 March.