DE LEON SPRINGS · APRIL · NOAA 1991-2020 NORMALS
April is the month De Leon Springs warms up without getting heavy. NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals put the average afternoon at 83.2°F, the average night at 62.8°F, and the whole month’s rain at 2.70 inches. That combination is swimming weather at the spring and walking weather under the oaks, a few weeks ahead of the summer pattern of daily afternoon storms.
The four weeks on either side are genuinely different trips. March keeps its nights at 58.3°F and May pushes afternoons to 88.2°F with nearly an inch more rain, so the shift is worth doing on purpose rather than by accident. The three months are compared in full below, along with what 3.9 rain days do to an afternoon and where the thermometer behind these figures actually stands.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · DE LEON SPRINGS · APRIL
April gives De Leon Springs 83.2°F afternoons and 2.70 inches of rain, the warm end of Florida’s dry season, and it is the last month before May adds five degrees and nearly an inch of water.
AVERAGE HIGH 83.2°F · 3.9 RAIN DAYS · 12 H 56 MIN OF DAYLIGHT ON APRIL 15
Go for: mornings cool enough to walk the dike trails, afternoons warm enough to swim, and the driest stretch of spring before May turns the rain up.
Think twice before: counting on manatees. Their season on the St. Johns is winter, and April is well past it.
Normals: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, station USW00012841 · Daylight: sunrise-sunset.org · full sources at the end
On this page
- Average highs, lows and rain days in AprilThe NOAA 1991-2020 normals, and where the gauge sits
- What to wear morning and afternoonA 20.4-degree swing between dawn and mid-afternoon
- Crowds, booking and what April costsWhere April sits in the dry season, and what we could not price
- Things to do around the spring in AprilThe spring run, Lake Woodruff and Blue Spring
- A two-day plan built on April lightSunrise 6:57 am, sunset 7:53 pm
- April against March and MayHow the three months compare, degree by degree
- Is April a good month to come?Our verdict, and the month to shift to
Everything not fixed to the calendar lives elsewhere: the statewide season logic in our best-time guide, the driving in getting around Florida.
De Leon Springs weather in April: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | April normal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 83.2°F |
| Average low | 62.8°F |
| Precipitation | 2.70 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.9 |
| Days with 1 in or more | 0.5 |
| Daylight on April 15 | 12 h 56 min |
Every figure here comes from one file: NOAA NCEI’s 1991-2020 monthly normals for station USW00012841. April reads 83.2°F for the average high, 62.8°F for the average low and 2.70 inches of precipitation. It matters where that thermometer stands. It is the Orlando Executive gauge, an airport station south of the spring in the same flat DeLand country, not an instrument at the water’s edge. A station normal comes from a real thermometer with a thirty-year record behind it, closer to the truth than a grid-cell reanalysis, but it describes the region rather than the spring itself.
3.9 days in an average April record at least a tenth of an inch, so something measurable falls about one day in eight. April is also the last month of Florida’s dry season, the November-to-April window the National Weather Service uses, and the monthly total shows it: 2.70 inches spread thin over thirty days. Put the outdoor half of the day in the morning and leave the late afternoon negotiable.
Dawn at 62.8°F and mid-afternoon at 83.2°F are 20.4 degrees apart, and the whole change happens inside one morning. Pack a light fleece or a windbreaker for the first hour on the boardwalk and shorts for the other eleven. Anyone sitting still at a picnic table before eight will want the layer back.
On April 15 the sun rises at 6:57 am and sets at 7:53 pm local time, giving 12 hours 56 minutes between them. Usable light holds on the water until around seven, which is late enough for a second swim after the heat of the day. Dinner in DeLand still starts at a civilized hour afterward.
How warm is De Leon Springs in April?
Set the ceiling and the floor side by side and April reads as a mid-80s month with cool nights attached: 83.2°F by mid-afternoon, 62.8°F before dawn. For central Florida that is the comfortable end of the year, warm enough to swim on arrival and cool enough at night to sleep with a window open.
At seven in the morning you will want sleeves. By eleven the jacket is dead weight in the daypack, and from noon onward it is a swimsuit, a hat and shade. Sunscreen does more work than any layer in April, since the sun is high and the dry-season air carries none of the haze that softens a July afternoon.
Our normals carry the monthly average low, 62.8°F, and no count of freezing nights, so we give no freeze figure for April. A late cold front can still drop a single night well under the average, and a 62.8°F mean puts that in the category of one extra blanket. As for the spring run itself, Florida spring water holds close to the same temperature all year, and we could not verify a reading for this one, so we quote no water figure.
How busy is De Leon Springs in April? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
April closes Florida’s dry season, the state’s busiest stretch and the reason winter here built an industry, as our best-time guide lays out. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for De Leon Springs or DeLand, so we crown no month expensive and name no peak in dollars. What we can say is calendar: April is inside the season, not outside it.
We could not verify a booking-lead statistic either, so treat the next line as our habit rather than a measurement: for a dry-season Saturday in central Florida we have the bed booked four to six weeks out (est.) and the car booked with it. DeLand and Orange City hold most of the nearby rooms, and our lodging guide covers how the state’s bases are organized.
We could not verify the local lodging-tax rate, so we give no percentage. Ask the property what it adds on top of the nightly rate before you compare two quotes, because the second number is the one you actually pay.
The one expense that changes April here is the car. There is no way to string the spring, the refuge and the St. Johns together without one, and picking it up at the airport rather than downtown is usually the cheaper half of that decision. What a Florida trip costs has the tiers, and our flights guide sorts which airport to fly into.
Things to do in De Leon Springs in April
Both halves of an April day work outdoors, and that is the month’s practical advantage. At 83.2°F, two in the afternoon at the spring is pleasant; in May, at 88.2°F, the walk back to the car becomes the hot part of the visit. The rain has not arrived yet either: 2.70 inches this month against 3.66 in May, 3.9 wet days against 5.3.
De Leon Springs State Park is the anchor: a spring pool with steps into it, a short boardwalk along the run, and paddling water heading south toward the marsh. The old sugar-mill building sits beside the swim area, and we could not verify its current hours or prices, so check before you plan breakfast around it. Next door, Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge carries flat dike trails over open marsh where wading birds feed at first light. About 15 km south, roughly nine miles, Blue Spring State Park sits on the St. Johns.
What April changes is the air, not the water. Spring runs in Florida stay close to constant through the year, so in winter the cold part of a swim is the minute after you climb out, while a 62.8°F night and an 83.2°F afternoon make April the month the two temperatures finally agree. Blue Spring is the clearest case: manatees crowd its run when the river turns cold, so the manatee season is winter and April is past it.
We could not verify an entrance fee or any free-admission day for the state park in April, so we quote neither. Florida state park rates change, and the official park page carries the current one. The dike trails at the refuge and the sunset over the marsh cost nothing either way.
De Leon Springs in April: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs on the light. Sunrise on April 15 is 6:57 am, and the first hour sits near the night’s 62.8°F average, so start at Lake Woodruff while the birds are still working the shallows. Be at the spring by ten as the air climbs through the 70s, swim before noon, then take the hottest stretch, 83.2°F on average, under the oaks or indoors in DeLand. Back in the water around four, and dinner after the 7:53 pm sunset.
Day two goes south along the St. Johns to Blue Spring and its boardwalk, with a paddle if the wind is down. If the sky turns, the odds are on your side at 3.9 wet days in the month, and the fix is simple: move the swim to the morning, give the afternoon to DeLand’s downtown, and drive home in the clear evening light. Add a third day and the statewide shortlist has your options.
De Leon Springs in April vs March and May
| Measure | March | April | May |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 78.4°F | 83.2°F | 88.2°F |
| Average low | 58.3°F | 62.8°F | 68.7°F |
| Precipitation | 2.74 in | 2.70 in | 3.66 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 4.0 | 3.9 | 5.3 |
Across the three months the afternoon climbs nearly ten degrees, from 78.4°F in March to 88.2°F in May, and April’s 83.2°F lands almost exactly between them. Rain hardly separates March from April at 2.74 and 2.70 inches, with 4.0 and 3.9 wet days. May is where the pattern breaks: 3.66 inches over 5.3 days.
Shift back four weeks and you trade 4.8 degrees off the afternoon for dawns at 58.3°F, cooler for the dike trails and cooler for the first swim, with the same rain: our March page has the detail. Shift forward four weeks and you get 88.2°F afternoons, 68.7°F nights that stay muggy, and nearly an inch more rain over an extra day and a half of it.
Is April a good time to visit De Leon Springs?
Yes for swimmers, paddlers and families: 83.2°F afternoons, 2.70 inches of rain and nearly thirteen hours of daylight are about as workable as this corner of Florida gets, and a trip with kids gets both the water and the trails in one day. No if you came for manatees, or if you want a park with nobody in it, since April is still inside the dry season.
If the answer is no, the two alternatives point in opposite directions. Come in March for 78.4°F afternoons and 58.3°F dawns if hiking is the point rather than swimming. Come in December or January if the St. Johns manatees are the reason for the drive, cold river and all.
Of the three spring months, only April pairs an afternoon in the 80s with under three inches of rain.
The last word
Book April if you want the swim and the walk on the same day, and build the plan around a 6:57 am sunrise rather than a lazy start. One last figure from the same NOAA file: 0.5 day in an average April brings an inch of rain or more, so a genuine soaking turns up about every other year. Keep the water in the morning, keep the receipt from the rental desk, and the rest of the month takes care of itself.
Sources & data for this guide
- April normals, 83.2°F high, 62.8°F low, 2.70 in · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012841 (Orlando Executive gauge) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Rain-day counts, 3.9 days at 0.10 in or more and 0.5 day at 1 in or more · same NOAA NCEI file · checked Sep 24, 2026
- March (78.4°F / 58.3°F, 2.74 in, 4.0 days) and May (88.2°F / 68.7°F, 3.66 in, 5.3 days) · same NOAA NCEI file · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight of 12 h 56 min, sunrise 6:57 am and sunset 7:53 pm on April 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Scope caveat: the gauge is not at the spring but at an airport station to the south in the same flat DeLand country, so read the normals as regional rather than as spot readings
- We found no occupancy or room-rate series, no lodging-tax rate, no park entrance fee and no water-temperature reading for the spring run, so we quote none of them
- Park hours, fees and restaurant service change · check Florida State Parks and the refuge before you drive out