ORLANDO · MARCH · THE MONTH IN NUMBERS
March hands Orlando a 78.9°F afternoon and a 55.8°F dawn: a 23-degree swing inside one day, and the reason a March morning at a park gate feels nothing like the same park at two o’clock. Rain totals 3.03 inches across the month. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, so this month sits outside it entirely.
What March takes back is quiet. Family school holidays fill the Orlando theme parks through the month, and there is no single spring break week to dodge: university calendars spread across March, while college break weighs on the beach towns rather than the parks. If the crowd is the deal-breaker, the twelve-month view for Florida makes the wider case.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · ORLANDO IN MARCH
March gives Orlando near-79°F afternoons, cool nights and four rain days, at the cost of the busiest family-holiday stretch of the spring.
AVG HIGH 78.9°F · 3.03 IN OF RAIN · 12H 02M OF DAYLIGHT ON MARCH 15
Go for: warm afternoons without wet-season storms, springs at 74 to 76°F, and a 7:35 p.m. sunset that adds a usable hour after the park gates.
Think twice before: booking a park week blind, because family school holidays run the whole month and no quiet week can be identified in advance.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, station USW00012815 · Water: USGS NWIS · Tax: Florida DOR · full sources at the end
On this page
- Average highs, lows and rain days in MarchThe NOAA normals, station named
- What to pack for a 55.8°F nightThe day-night spread
- Crowds, booking and the tax on a room6% county plus 6% state
- Springs and boardwalks near OrlandoWekiwa, Blue Spring, Rock Springs
- A two-day plan around March sunset timesSunrise 7:32, sunset 7:35
- March against February and AprilThree months, one table
- Should I move the trip four weeks?The verdict on March
Two practical points before the weather. Orlando runs on Eastern time, and it has two commercial airports: MCO boarded 27,859,783 passengers in calendar year 2024, the busiest count in Florida, ahead of Miami, while Sanford SFB boarded 1.4 million (FAA). We could not verify how far SFB sits from the parks, because the airport’s own site blocks our connections, so no mileage and no drive time appear here. Car logic and transfers belong to getting around Florida.
Orlando weather in March: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | Orlando, March |
|---|---|
| Average high | 78.9°F |
| Average low | 55.8°F |
| Total precipitation | 3.03 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 4.0 |
| Days with 1.00 in or more | 1.1 |
| Daylight, March 15 | about 12h 02m |
Every air figure here comes from one thermometer: NOAA NCEI’s 1991-2020 monthly normals for station USW00012815, at Orlando International Airport. That is a real station record, not a reanalysis grid cell averaged over a square of Central Florida, and the two do not agree, least of all on overnight lows. March at that station averages 78.9°F by day, 55.8°F at night and 3.03 inches of rain.
Four days in an average March record at least 0.10 inch of rain: measurable water roughly one day in eight. The number that matters more is 1.1, the count of days reaching a full inch. So the typical March delivers three modest wet spells and one genuine soaking, and 3.03 inches spread over four days means the rain arrives concentrated rather than as a long gray drizzle.
The gap between high and low is 23.1°F, wider than the daily swing most visitors expect from Florida. A 7 a.m. queue at 55.8°F wants a fleece; the same body at 2 p.m. under 78.9°F wants it off and carried. Pack one layer you can stuff into a daypack, and count on wearing it twice a day rather than once.
Light is the quiet gift of the month. On March 15 the sun rises at 7:32 a.m. and sets at 7:35 p.m. Eastern, for about 12 hours 02 minutes of daylight (clock times rounded to the minute). That evening figure is the operative one: dusk lands after dinner hour, which opens a usable hour outdoors once the afternoon heat has dropped off.
How warm is Orlando in March? Daytime 78.9°F, nights 55.8°F
78.9°F and 55.8°F are the monthly averages of daily maxima and daily minima, not the hottest and coldest readings anyone has logged. Individual days run above and below both. The 23.1°F spread between them is the number to plan around, and it is slightly wider than February’s 22.5°F and April’s 22.9°F at the same station.
In practice that means two wardrobes in one bag. Long sleeves and closed shoes before nine, shorts and sun cover from late morning, and a change of shirt if the day involves queuing. Water matters more than a jacket: a 78.9°F afternoon in low March humidity still dehydrates a family walking eight hours, and our Florida-with-kids guide treats the park-day logistics.
Freezing nights: we will not claim a count. The NOAA normals we read for this station publish the monthly average low, 55.8°F, but no freeze-day tally for March, so none appears here. What the average does tell you is that the coolest hours of a March night sit roughly 24 degrees above freezing, and the risk to plan for is a chilly pre-dawn, not ice.
How busy is Orlando in March? Crowds, booking and the 12% tax on a room
March is a demand month for the parks. Family school holidays fill Disney and Universal across the whole of it, and college spring break lands mostly on the beach towns instead. No single week carries the load: university calendars stagger through March, so there is no bad fortnight to avoid and no reliably quiet one to target. We hold no monthly hotel rate series for Orlando, so this page crowns no cheapest or dearest month.
That staggering changes how you book. Fix the dated things first, the room and the flights, and treat park admission as a moving target: Disney and Universal price by date, so any ticket figure printed today is wrong within weeks. That is why no park price appears anywhere here. Get the amount from the operator on the day you commit, and read what a Florida trip costs for the shape of the rest.
The tax is the one lodging number we can pin. Orange County, where Orlando and the parks sit, levies a 6.0% transient rental tax, filed and paid alongside the 6% state sales tax (Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT). On a room that is 12% on top of the quoted rate, before any resort fee a property may add, and it applies in March exactly as in September.
The spend that genuinely changes a busy month is ground transport. A single LYNX bus ride costs $2.00, or $1.00 at the discount fare, and a transfer is free. The All-Day Pass is $4.50, $2.25 discounted, and LYNX prints the condition in capitals: ask the operator for it before putting money in the farebox. It runs from 4:00 a.m. until 3:00 a.m. the next day. SunRail is a commuter line for residents: its own schedule page names no airport and no theme-park station, and its fares page prints no amount we could read.
Things to do in Orlando in March: springs, boardwalks and park days
March buys an outdoor day the wet season cannot sell. The afternoon reaches 78.9°F with only 3.03 inches of rain across the month and no tropical system to watch, since the hurricane season does not open until June 1. Add twelve hours of daylight and the springs north of town become a full day rather than a hot dash, without the summer morning when the popular parks turn cars away at the gate.
The nearest is Wekiwa Springs State Park: 325 parking spaces, one designated swimming area, one canoe, kayak and tube launch, 15.9 miles of paddling trail, 13.7 miles of hiking trail and 1,435 feet of boardwalk, per Florida DEP’s 2024 facilities inventory. Blue Spring State Park counts 187 spaces, three observation platforms, six cabins and 3,050 feet of boardwalk, the longest at any Florida spring park in that inventory. Silver Springs dwarfs both with 1,686 spaces and three launches, and Kelly Park holds the Rock Springs tubing run.
The water barely notices the calendar. USGS gauges read 75.6°F at Wekiwa Springs, 75.0°F at Rock Springs and 74.3°F at Blue Spring, with 168 cubic feet per second of discharge, all instantaneous readings taken on September 11, 2026 rather than monthly averages. Air is what moves: a 78.9°F March afternoon sits about three degrees above Wekiwa’s water, so the first thirty seconds sting and the next hour does not. In winter the opposite gap explains the manatees, since the river around a spring cools while the aquifer discharge stays warm. The season’s timing lives in our manatee guide.
What is free, we cannot tell you, and we would rather say so than guess: floridastateparks.org refused our reads on September 11, 2026, so this page carries no entrance fee, no opening hour and no manatee count for any spring. Check each park’s own page the week you go. For the paid attractions that fill a March week, the statewide shortlist ranks them.
Orlando in March: two-day itinerary and sunset times
Day one runs on the springs. Leave by 7:30 a.m. at 55.8°F in a fleece, be at the Wekiwa gate early enough to take one of 325 spaces, and swim between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. when the air has climbed toward 78.9°F and the 75.6°F water reads warm rather than shocking. Paddle a stretch of the 15.9-mile trail after lunch, walk part of the 1,435 feet of boardwalk on the way out, and leave yourself back in town before the 7:35 p.m. sunset.
Day two is the park day: gates at opening, the fleece off by ten, the afternoon paced for shade, and daylight lasting until 7:35 p.m. for the evening hours you paid for. If the sky turns, March gives roughly one inch-plus day a month, so hold Blue Spring’s three observation platforms and six cabins, or an indoor Orlando afternoon, as the swap. Bus riders should buy the $4.50 All-Day Pass on the first boarding, asking for it before the money goes in.
Orlando in March vs February and April
| Measure | February | March | April |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 74.9°F | 78.9°F | 83.6°F |
| Average low | 52.4°F | 55.8°F | 60.7°F |
| Total precipitation | 2.04 in | 3.03 in | 2.58 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.8 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
| Day-night spread | 22.5°F | 23.1°F | 22.9°F |
All three columns come from the same station and the same 1991-2020 period, so the comparison is clean. March runs 4.0°F warmer by day than February and 4.7°F cooler than April, with nights 3.4°F above February and 4.9°F below April. It is also the wettest of the three at 3.03 inches, a full inch over February, yet the rain-day counts barely differ: 3.8, 4.0, 3.9. Same number of wet days, heavier water on each. Spring temperature is the constant, at 74 to 76°F in every column.
Shift four weeks back to February and you trade an inch of rain away for a 74.9°F afternoon and a 52.4°F dawn, which suits walking more than swimming. Shift forward to April and you gain the 83.6°F afternoon and the 60.7°F night that make the springs feel cold by contrast, and you lose nothing on rain. The crowd argument does not move with either: family school holidays run through March whichever way you lean.
Is March a good time to visit Orlando?
Yes for anyone whose plan involves being outdoors all day: 78.9°F afternoons, four rain days, twelve hours of light and no tropical system to track. No for anyone whose plan depends on elbow room. Family school holidays fill the parks the entire month, and because university break weeks stagger, there is no quiet slot to book into.
If the crowd is the deciding factor, February is the month to look at first: an inch less rain, 74.9°F days that are still shirtsleeve weather, and nights at 52.4°F that make the springs a spectator sport rather than a swim. Push to April instead and you buy 83.6°F and 60.7°F, at the price of an afternoon that starts to feel like the run-up to the wet season.
No other month combines a near-79°F afternoon with a 75.6°F spring only three degrees cooler, twelve hours of daylight and a calendar sitting clear of June 1.
The last word
Decide the crowd question first and the weather question will look after itself: March’s numbers are as good as Central Florida gets outdoors, and the only thing you are really buying against is company. One route worth knowing if Orlando is chapter two of a trip: Brightline links Miami and Orlando over about 235 miles in roughly three and a half hours, with departures around every two hours. Fares move by date and class, so we quote none.
Sources & data for this guide
- March, February and April normals (highs, lows, precipitation, rain days) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012815, Orlando International Airport · checked Sep 11, 2026
- Sunrise, sunset and daylight on March 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to America/New_York · checked Sep 11, 2026
- Atlantic hurricane season dates · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 11, 2026
- Transient rental tax (6.0% Orange County) and 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 11, 2026
- LYNX fares, free transfer and the All-Day Pass condition · LYNX Fares & Passes · checked Sep 11, 2026
- SunRail station list and fares page carrying no printed amount · sunrail.com · checked Sep 11, 2026
- MCO and SFB passenger boardings, calendar year 2024 · Federal Aviation Administration · checked Sep 11, 2026
- Parking spaces, boardwalk lengths, trails and launches at Wekiwa, Blue Spring and Silver Springs · Florida DEP Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 11, 2026
- Spring water temperatures, instantaneous readings of Sep 11, 2026 · USGS NWIS stations 02234600, 02234610 and 02235500 · not monthly averages
- Why manatees gather at springs in winter · Southwest Florida Water Management District, spring hydrology report, May 2001 revised March 2011 · checked Sep 11, 2026
- Editorial admissions: floridastateparks.org returned 403 to our reads and flysfb.com blocks our connections, so no entrance fee, opening hour or SFB drive time appears here · checked Sep 11, 2026. Disney and Universal price tickets by date, so no park admission figure is printed · decision of Sep 8, 2026