DE LEON SPRINGS · MARCH · VOLUSIA COUNTY
March hands De Leon Springs the trade most visitors are looking for: afternoons that average 78.4°F, nights that still fall to 58.3°F, and 2.74 inches of rain spread thinly enough that a weekend rarely loses a whole day. You can walk a trail at noon without regretting it and still want a blanket on the porch after dinner.
What the month takes back is quiet. March is spring-break season across American school calendars, and the dates move district by district rather than landing on one national week. If you want the same spring run with cooler, drier air, February is four weeks behind; the statewide view lives in our month-by-month verdict for Florida.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · DE LEON SPRINGS
March gives you 78.4°F afternoons, 58.3°F nights and light until 7:35 p.m.: take the first hour after the gate opens on weekends and accept about four days of measurable rain.
AVERAGE HIGH 78.4°F · 4.0 RAIN DAYS · 12H 02M OF DAYLIGHT ON MARCH 15
Go for: warm afternoons without April’s 83.2°F, a swim that follows a morning walk instead of replacing it, and useful light until 7:35 p.m.
Think twice before: booking a March weekend late. Spring-break weeks move by school district, and we found no occupancy series for Volusia County to tell you which ones fill.
Normals: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, station USW00012841 · Light: sunrise-sunset.org · full sources at the end
On this page
- De Leon Springs weather in March78.4°F days, 58.3°F nights, 4.0 rain days
- How warm it gets, day and nightA 20.1°F swing between dawn and mid-afternoon
- Crowds and prices in MarchSpring break, booking lead time, and what we could not price
- Things to do in De Leon Springs in MarchThe state park, the sugar mill, Blue Spring
- A two-day itineraryDay one at the spring, day two nine miles south
- March or April?How February, March and April compare
- Is March a good time to visit?Our answer, and the month to switch to
De Leon Springs sits in Volusia County, in the DeLand country inland from Daytona Beach. Most trips start with a flight into Orlando or Daytona Beach and a rental car, because nothing here works on foot from a hotel: our getting-around guide covers the driving and the electronic tolls, and the flights page handles the airports.
De Leon Springs weather in March: average highs, lows and rain days
| March in De Leon Springs | Normal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 78.4°F (25.8°C) |
| Average low | 58.3°F (14.6°C) |
| Monthly precipitation | 2.74 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 4.0 |
| Days with 1.00 in or more | 0.7 |
| Daylight, March 15 | 12h 02m |
| Sunrise / sunset, March 15 | 7:32 a.m. / 7:35 p.m. |
Every figure here is a station normal rather than a grid-cell reanalysis: NOAA NCEI’s 1991-2020 monthly normals for station USW00012841, the Orlando Executive gauge. That thermometer does not stand in De Leon Springs. It is the same record used for Blue Spring, roughly nine miles (15 km) south, and across flat inland Volusia country the shape of the month travels well even when one particular afternoon does not.
Four days in an average March record at least 0.10 inch of rain, so measurable water falls about one day in eight. In the dry season that arrives as a burst rather than a gray afternoon: the boardwalk empties for twenty minutes and refills. Carry a light shell, keep the picnic in the car, and treat a shower as a reason to order lunch rather than to drive home.
The gap between 78.4°F and 58.3°F is 20.1 degrees inside a single day, and that spread does the packing for you. A fleece and long pants for an 8 a.m. trailhead, shorts and a T-shirt by one in the afternoon, and a towel that will still be damp at sunset. Nobody dresses for the average in March, they dress twice.
On March 15 the sun rises at 7:32 a.m. and sets at 7:35 p.m. local time: 12 hours and 2 minutes of daylight, the month in which Florida crosses back into long evenings. The practical value of that late sunset is a second outing after the crowds thin, with an hour of low, kind light on the water before the parking lot empties.
How warm is De Leon Springs in March?
The month averages a high of 78.4°F and a low of 58.3°F, those 20.1 degrees apart. Against February, March runs 4.1°F warmer by day and 4.0°F warmer by night, which is the difference between an afternoon you tolerate in the water and one you look forward to. Against April’s 83.2°F, it is a full step cooler at the hottest hour.
In practice: sleeves and a light jacket at breakfast, swimwear under your clothes by lunch. We could not verify a water temperature for the spring run, so we publish no figure for it, and we would call the park before planning a swim day around one. Where you do see a spring or river reading quoted, check whether it is an average of daily maxima, which runs a touch warmer than a true 24-hour mean.
Freezing nights are the other open question. We found no count of below-32°F nights in the March normals, so we give none, and 58.3°F is the middle of the month’s nights rather than its floor. Inland Volusia does get cold snaps in early spring, and a March trip that includes a tent should carry a real sleeping bag rather than a summer liner.
How busy is De Leon Springs in March? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
March sits in the back half of Florida’s dry season, November through April, and it is the month when school calendars send families south. That is a fact of the calendar, not of a price list: we found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Volusia County, so we crown no month of the year cheap or expensive here.
Weekends carry the pressure, and Saturday mornings carry most of the weekend. For a room in DeLand on a March Saturday, book four to six weeks out (est.) and take the free-cancellation rate rather than the cheaper locked one, since spring-break weeks shift by district. Midweek nights in the same month behave like an ordinary Florida spring.
On taxes we have to hold our hands up. We could not verify the Volusia County lodging-tax rate, so no percentage appears anywhere above, and a quoted room rate may still grow at checkout. Our Florida trip-cost guide carries the general shape of state and county add-ons.
There is one upgrade that changes the month rather than the comfort: sleeping within a short drive of the spring instead of out on the coast. Being ten minutes away buys you the first hour after opening, which in March is the difference between a parking space and a queue, and between a quiet boardwalk at 8 a.m. and a full one at eleven.
Things to do in De Leon Springs in March
March is the month that lets you do both halves of the day outdoors. At 78.4°F you can walk the flatwoods at midday and swim afterward without either feeling like an endurance test. February’s 74.3°F makes the swim a decision; April’s 83.2°F pushes the walk back to before eight. This is the four-week window when the schedule stops arguing with you.
De Leon Springs State Park is the anchor, with its spring run, its swim area and the Old Spanish Sugar Mill griddle house inside the gate where you cook your own pancakes at the table. Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge shares the same wetland just west. Blue Spring State Park lies roughly nine miles (15 km) south at Orange City, under the same weather gauge. Check the official listing the week you go for current entry fees and opening hours.
A Florida spring holds its temperature all year while the air above it does not, and that gap is the whole seasonal story: 74.3°F average highs in February, 78.4 in March, 83.2 in April, over water that barely notices. The swim feels colder, then right, then like relief, and only the air moved. Manatee timing is a separate question, handled in our manatee guide.
The free part of March is the light. Twelve hours and two minutes of it on the 15th, with the last of it at 7:35 p.m., which is enough for a second walk after the day-trippers drive off. We could not verify a fee-free day at either state park this month, so we promise none.
De Leon Springs in March: a two-day itinerary
Day one. Be at the park gate soon after the 7:32 a.m. sunrise, while the air still sits near 58.3°F and the trails are yours. Walk the wooded loops first, then move to the water around one, when the day is closest to its 78.4°F high. Pancakes at the sugar mill make the natural middle of the afternoon. Save the last hour before 7:35 p.m. for the run itself, when the light goes low and the crowd has gone.
Day two. Drive the nine miles south to Blue Spring for the boardwalk at opening, then come back north for a late swim. If the rain lands, and about one March day in eight brings a measurable dose, it usually clears within the hour: sit it out over lunch in DeLand and reverse the order of the day rather than abandoning it. A soaking day is best spent on the drive to St. Augustine instead.
De Leon Springs in March vs February and April
| Normal | February | March | April |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 74.3°F | 78.4°F | 83.2°F |
| Average low | 54.3°F | 58.3°F | 62.8°F |
| Precipitation | 2.06 in | 2.74 in | 2.70 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.4 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
| Day-night spread | 20.0°F | 20.1°F | 20.4°F |
March lands 4.1°F above February by day and 4.8°F below April, with nights following the same climb from 54.3 to 58.3 to 62.8°F. It is also the wettest of the three on paper, 2.74 inches against February’s 2.06 and April’s 2.70, and it carries 4.0 measurable rain days against 3.4 and 3.9. For water temperature we have no verified figure in any of the three months, and we will not invent one.
Shift four weeks back and you gain the driest month of the three and the thinnest school-holiday pressure, at the cost of an afternoon that tops out near 74.3°F. Shift four weeks forward and the swim gets easy at 83.2°F, while the midday walk stops being pleasant and the mornings lose their edge of cool. March is the compromise that keeps both halves of the day.
Is March a good time to visit De Leon Springs?
Yes for anyone who wants to walk and swim on the same day, and for photographers who want cool early light and a 7:35 p.m. sunset in the same twenty-four hours. No for travelers who need an empty park on a Saturday, and no for anyone booking late in a spring-break week without a cancellable rate.
If the crowd matters more than the warmth, go in February: 74.3°F days, 2.06 inches of rain and 3.4 measurable days, the driest and quietest of the three. If the swim matters most, April’s 83.2°F afternoons do the job, and you trade away the comfortable midday hike to get them.
What no other month gives is the crossing point: afternoons already at 78.4°F while nights still drop to 58.3, with twelve hours of daylight to spend between them.
The last word
Book the bed near the spring rather than the cheaper one on the coast, and set an alarm for the first day: everything else in March forgives you. One number we have kept back until now says why the month reads worse on paper than it feels. Only 0.7 day in an average March brings an inch of rain or more, roughly seven such days a decade. The rest of that 2.74 inches falls in the short, warm bursts that send everyone to the griddle house and then hand the boardwalk back.
Sources & data for this guide
- March normals (high 78.4°F, low 58.3°F, 2.74 in) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012841 · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Rain-day counts (4.0 days at 0.10 in or more, 0.7 day at 1.00 in or more) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012841 · checked Sep 24, 2026
- February and April normals used in the comparison · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012841 · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise and sunset for March 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Station caveat: the gauge is the Orlando Executive record, not a thermometer in De Leon Springs, and the same record serves Blue Spring roughly nine miles (15 km) south.
- We could not verify park entry fees, opening hours, the spring’s water temperature, the Volusia County lodging-tax rate or any occupancy series, and we give no figure for any of them · check the operators when you book.
To plan your stay
- Best Time to Visit De Leon Springs, Month by Month: Highs, Rain and the Quiet Weeks
- De Leon Springs in February: Weather, Rain Days and a Two-Day Plan
- De Leon Springs in April: Weather, Rain Days and How It Compares to March and May
- De Leon Springs in January: Weather, Rain Days and What to Pack for 52°F Nights