FLORIDA · MADISON BLUE SPRING · APRIL
Madison Blue Spring comes out of the ground at about 73.2°F, and it does that in January, in July and on the day you show up. April works on the air instead. NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals put the month at 79.6°F by day and 52.8°F at night. That afternoon figure sits 6.4°F above the water, for the first sustained stretch of the year.
The rest of the month reads in specifics. Rain totals 3.66 inches, most of it delivered on the 4.5 days that record 0.10 inch or more. Daylight runs 12 hours 59 minutes on the 15th and closes at 8:02 p.m. And one line from the state’s own facilities inventory should shape the plan before you pack: Madison Blue Spring State Park has no designated swimming area listed, and no canoe, kayak or tube launch either.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · MADISON BLUE SPRING · APRIL
April gives you the first afternoons warm enough to dry off in, at a spring whose water sits near 73.2°F whatever the calendar says.
AIR 79.6°F / 52.8°F · WATER NEAR 73.2°F ALL YEAR · 4.5 RAIN DAYS · 12H59 OF LIGHT
Go for: warm afternoons over cool water, rain spread thin across 4.5 days, and a 26.8°F daily swing that makes the first hours genuinely fresh.
Think twice before: counting on a marked swim area or a paddle launch, since Florida’s 2024 facilities inventory lists neither at this park.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 · Water: USGS gauge 02319302 · Light: sunrise-sunset.org
On this page
- April weather at the springHighs of 79.6°F, lows of 52.8°F, 4.5 rain days
- Water temperature in April73.2°F, and no seasonal swing
- Fees, opening hours and crowdsWhat we could verify and what we could not
- Things to do at the spring in AprilInside Madison Blue Spring State Park
- A two-day plan built on the lightSunrise 7:03 a.m., sunset 8:02 p.m.
- April, March or May?How the three months compare
- Is April a good month to go?Our verdict, for swimmers and for divers
The air numbers below come from a NOAA station across the state line in Georgia. The water number comes from a gauge sitting in the spring itself. Those two sources stay separate all the way down, because they say completely different things about April.
Madison Blue Spring weather in April: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | April | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Average high | 79.6°F | NOAA NCEI normals 1991-2020 |
| Average low | 52.8°F | NOAA NCEI normals 1991-2020 |
| Day-night spread | 26.8°F | calculated from the two normals |
| Precipitation | 3.66 in | NOAA NCEI normals 1991-2020 |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 4.5 | NOAA NCEI normals 1991-2020 |
| Days with 1 in or more | 1.4 | NOAA NCEI normals 1991-2020 |
| Daylight on April 15 | 12 h 59 min | sunrise-sunset.org |
| Spring water | 73.2°F | USGS gauge 02319302 |
Every air figure here comes from one thermometer: the NOAA NCEI monthly normals for 1991-2020 at Valdosta Regional Airport, Georgia, station USW00093845, about 44 km (27 miles) from the spring. That is a real station record rather than a gridded reanalysis, and the trade is distance. The airport sits north of the state line on open ground, the spring sits in a shaded hollow, and April at the station averages 79.6°F by day, 52.8°F at night, with 3.66 inches of rain.
Rain reaches 0.10 inch or more on 4.5 days, roughly one day in seven. The heavy end is narrower: 1.4 days reach a full inch. For a week on site that works out to one proper soaking, sometimes none, plus a few skies that do something brief and unimpressive before clearing. A wet April day here is rarely a wet April week.
The 26.8°F gap between those two normals decides the bag more than the monthly totals do. Long sleeves and long pants for the first two hours, shorts from mid-morning, and a towel that dries fast rather than one that holds the dawn chill. Anyone planning to get in the water twice should pack a second towel, because the first one will still be damp at two o’clock.
On April 15 the sun rises at 7:03 a.m. and sets at 8:02 p.m. local time, giving 12 hours 59 minutes of daylight. The back end is the useful part. Light holds past eight, so a swim that starts at four still has four hours behind it, and the drive out happens without headlights.
How warm is Madison Blue Spring in April?
Two temperatures matter at this spring, and only one of them has a season. The USGS gauge in the water, station 02319302, read 73.2°F (22.9°C) on 11 September 2026. That is a single instantaneous reading rather than a monthly average, and the vent reads close to it every day of the year. The air above does move: from an average low of 52.8°F to an average high of 79.6°F, a spread of 26.8°F.
An April morning at the water’s edge is a fleece morning. Getting into 73.2°F water at eight, with the air still in the fifties, is a decision you make once and regret for ten minutes. By early afternoon the arithmetic flips: 79.6°F air over 73.2°F water means climbing out is the comfortable half of the swim. Keep the long session for after two.
We found no count of nights at or below freezing in the April record for this station, so we give no number. An average low of 52.8°F tells you frost is not a normal April event, and a monthly average never rules out one cold night. If you sleep anywhere near the water, pack for the low forties rather than for the average.
How busy is Madison Blue Spring in April? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
We found no occupancy series and no room-rate series for this corner of north Florida, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. What can be dated is the calendar around April: it is the last full month before the average high climbs to 86.4°F in May, and the last one whose afternoons stay under eighty. For what a Florida trip costs at a statewide level, our trip cost guide does the budgeting.
On booking we have to be plain about a gap. We could not verify an entrance fee, an opening hour or a capacity limit for Madison Blue Spring State Park: floridastateparks.org answered our automated reads with a 403 on 11 September 2026. Call the park the week before you drive, and treat any fee you saw quoted for another Florida spring as belonging to that spring. Where you sleep is a regional question, and our where to stay guide takes it.
We could not verify the lodging-tax rate for Madison County either, so we give no percentage. What holds across the state is the shape of the bill: the room quote and the checkout total are two different numbers, and the surcharges land at the property rather than at any park gate. Know before you go collects the state-level rules.
The line worth paying up for in April is thermal, not residential. Water at 73.2°F takes your breath for a second and never becomes dangerous, but how many times you go back in depends entirely on what you wear. A shorty covers a warm-blooded swimmer through an afternoon. A full suit covers anyone planning repeat entries on a morning when the air has not yet reached sixty.
Things to do at Madison Blue Spring in April
April does one thing March cannot. The March average high is 72.9°F, three tenths of a degree under the 73.2°F water, so on an average March afternoon there is nowhere warmer to stand than the spring itself. April’s 79.6°F sits 6.4°F above it. That single gap is the difference between one quick dip and a whole afternoon of going in and out.
Madison Blue Spring State Park is the address, and its numbers come from two agencies. The USGS gauge in the spring, station 02319302, measured 73.2°F and 72 cubic feet per second leaving the vent on 11 September 2026. That volume is why the water stays glass-clear: it is replaced faster than it can cloud. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s 2024 Recreational Facilities Inventory lists no designated swimming area at this park, and no canoe, kayak or tube launch.
None of that moves with the month. The vent held 73.2°F in September and will hold it in April. The air is the variable, gaining 6.7°F in average high between March and April, then another 6.8°F into May. Florida law also puts a category over springs of this kind, the Outstanding Florida Springs defined in Statute 373.802(5): every historic first-magnitude spring the Florida Geological Survey determines, plus six named by hand in the statute. We did not verify which of those two doors Madison Blue came through.
Because we could not read an entrance fee, we will not tell you what April costs at the gate and we will not guess at it. What the month hands over at no charge is light: 12 hours 59 minutes of it on the 15th, holding to 8:02 p.m., which is enough for a late entry and a dry drive home.
Madison Blue Spring in April: a two-day itinerary
Day one works backward from the light. Leave the air alone until it has climbed: 9 a.m. at the water’s edge is cold in a month averaging 52.8°F at dawn, and 11 a.m. is not. Get in around noon, with the air near its 79.6°F average, and expect the first moments to be sharp. Dry off, eat, go back in at two. From four the light lengthens, and sunset at 8:02 p.m. means nobody is packing a wet bag in the dark.
Day two takes the same shape with one substitution. If the sky turns out to be the 1.4-day kind, dropping an inch or more, the spring is the part of the day that does not change: 73.2°F and 72 cubic feet per second regardless. Rain rearranges the drive, the towels and the lunch. If it is the commoner 0.10-inch morning, wait it out over coffee and keep the swim for the warmest hours. March’s wetter pattern, 5.6 measurable days, sits in our March page.
Madison Blue Spring in April vs March and May
| Measure | March | April | May |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 72.9°F | 79.6°F | 86.4°F |
| Average low | 47.2°F | 52.8°F | 60.3°F |
| Precipitation | 3.73 in | 3.66 in | 2.84 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 5.6 | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| Spring water | near 73.2°F | near 73.2°F | near 73.2°F |
The three months separate on air and almost nothing else. Average highs run 72.9°F, 79.6°F and 86.4°F, a climb of close to 6.7°F a month, with lows following the same staircase at 47.2, 52.8 and 60.3°F. Rain barely shifts between March and April, 3.73 inches against 3.66, then falls to 2.84 inches in May. Measurable rain days go 5.6, then 4.5, then 4.6. The water stays near 73.2°F through all three.
Move four weeks earlier and March hands you 72.9°F air over 73.2°F water, so the spring becomes the warm place and the parking lot the cold one, with one more measurable rain day in the bargain. Move four weeks later and May gives the driest of the three at 2.84 inches plus afternoons at 86.4°F, which makes the same 73.2°F water feel colder going in. April takes the middle: warm enough to dry off, mild enough that the first contact is a relief rather than a shock.
Is April a good time to visit Madison Blue Spring?
For swimmers and divers who plan to get in and out repeatedly, April is the first easy month of the year: 79.6°F air over 73.2°F water, 4.5 days of measurable rain, and light until 8:02 p.m. For anyone arriving expecting a marked swim area, a tube rental or a paddle launch, April fixes nothing, because Florida’s 2024 inventory lists none of those at this park in any month.
If that makes the answer no, the month to move to is May rather than March. May is drier at 2.84 inches and its 86.4°F afternoons give the sharpest contrast with the spring, which is what most people mean by a swimming day. March runs the other way: 5.6 rain days and afternoons at 72.9°F, cooler than the water you came for.
April alone puts an afternoon 6.4°F warmer than the spring against evenings that run to 8:02 p.m., without May’s 86.4°F heat waiting in the parking lot when you get out.
The last word
Decide on the water rather than the forecast. The spring will read near 73.2°F the morning you arrive, and all April negotiates is how it feels to climb out. The rain case is clearer as a ratio: 3.66 inches falling across 4.5 measurable days averages about 0.8 inch on a wet day, so an April shower here is a real one and then it is finished. Check USGS station 02319302 before you leave the house, and call the park for its opening hour, because that is one thing we could not read anywhere.
Sources & data for this guide
- April air normals (79.6°F / 52.8°F, 3.66 in, 4.5 days at 0.10 in, 1.4 days at 1 in) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00093845, Valdosta Regional Airport, GA, about 44 km from the spring · checked Sep 24, 2026
- March and May normals (72.9 / 47.2°F, 3.73 in, 5.6 days · 86.4 / 60.3°F, 2.84 in, 4.6 days) · same NOAA NCEI series · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise and sunset for April 15 (12 h 59 min · 7:03 a.m. · 8:02 p.m. local) · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Water temperature 73.2°F and flow 72 cubic feet per second · USGS National Water Information System, station 02319302, instantaneous reading · checked Sep 24, 2026
- No designated swimming area and no canoe, kayak or tube launch · Florida DEP Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Outstanding Florida Springs definition · Florida Statutes 373.802(5) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- We could not verify an entrance fee, an opening hour or a manatee count: floridastateparks.org returned 403 to our automated reads and the state wildlife agency renders its manatee pages client-side · checked Sep 24, 2026. We therefore give no price and no hour.
To plan your stay
- Madison Blue Spring: When to Go, Month by Month Highs, Rain and Daylight
- Madison Blue Spring in March: Weather, Water Temperature and Rain Days
- Madison Blue Spring in May: Weather, Water Temperature and How May Compares to April and June
- Madison Blue Spring in February: 67°F Air, 73°F Water and 3.8 Freezing Nights