FLORIDA · WEKIWA SPRINGS · MARCH
Wekiwa Springs holds 75.6°F water in March, the same water it holds in August. A spring has no seasons. The air above it does, and March is where the two cross: afternoons average 78.9°F, so for the first time since fall the warmest part of the day sits a few degrees above the water you are about to step into.
What March takes back is rain and company. It is the wettest of the three late-winter months at 3.03 inches, against 2.04 in February, and it carries Florida’s spring-break weeks. The park counts 325 parking spaces and one designated swimming area, so a warm March Saturday runs out of room early. Drive first thing, and let the park guide handle everything that isn’t dated by the month.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · WEKIWA SPRINGS · MARCH
March is the first month whose afternoons average warmer than the spring itself, bought at the price of break-week crowds and the heaviest rain of the late-winter three.
AIR NORMALS FROM ORLANDO INTL, 27 MILES AWAY · WATER 75.6°F YEAR-ROUND · 325 PARKING SPACES
Go for: 78.9°F afternoons over 75.6°F water, 13.7 miles of trail before the summer heat arrives, and light that holds to 7:35 p.m.
Think twice before: arriving midmorning on a warm weekend: the park has 325 parking spaces, and when they fill the gate closes.
Air: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, Orlando Intl · Water: USGS gauge 02234600 · Facilities: Florida DEP inventory 2024
On this page
- March weather in numbers78.9°F highs, 3.03 inches, 4 wet days
- How cold do March mornings get?Lows near 55.8°F, and what to pack
- Crowds, booking and taxesBreak weeks against 325 parking spaces
- Things to do in the park13.7 miles of trail, 15.9 miles of paddling
- A two-day planHour by hour, hike day and paddle day
- February or April instead?How the three months compare
- Is March worth it?Our verdict, for swimmers and for hikers
One caveat before the normals below: every air figure here is measured at Orlando International Airport, because the spring itself has no weather station. The water figure comes from a gauge in the spring run. For how the rest of the state times its year, see our month-by-month verdict, and for what a Florida week costs around it, the cost guide.
Wekiwa Springs weather in March: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | March normal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 78.9°F |
| Average low | 55.8°F |
| Day-to-night spread | 23.1°F |
| Precipitation | 3.03 inches |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 4.0 |
| Days with 1 inch or more | 1.1 |
| Daylight, March 15 | 12 hours 02 minutes |
| Spring water | 75.6°F |
The air figures come from NOAA NCEI monthly normals for 1991 to 2020, and the thermometer is not at the spring: it sits at Orlando International Airport (MCO), about 27 miles (44 km) away, which is the airport most visitors fly into anyway. That is a real station with a long record, not a reanalysis grid cell. March there averages a high of 78.9°F, a low of 55.8°F and 3.03 inches of precipitation.
Four days in an average March record at least a tenth of an inch, roughly one day in eight, and 1.1 of those deliver an inch or more. The shape matters more than the total: March rain here tends to arrive as one or two soakings rather than a gray week. A wet day rarely ends the visit, but it turns 15.9 miles of paddling trail into a dry-bag exercise, and the boardwalk under the oaks goes slick.
That 23.1°F spread between the average dawn and the average afternoon decides the bag more than the high does. A 55.8°F morning at a shaded picnic table is fleece weather. The same table at three o’clock, with the air at 78.9°F, is not. Bring one layer you can shed by ten, a dry towel, and something with sleeves for afterward, because stepping out of 75.6°F water into shade and a breeze is colder than the numbers suggest.
On March 15 the sun rises at 7:33 a.m. and sets at 7:35 p.m. local time, 12 hours and 2 minutes of daylight. Clocks have already moved to daylight time by then, so the gain shows at the evening end: you can be off the water at 6:30 and still load the car in light. Under the canopy it goes sooner, so finish the 13.7 miles of hiking trail well before that sunset figure.
How warm is Wekiwa Springs in March?
March averages a high of 78.9°F and a low of 55.8°F, a spread of 23.1 degrees. Set against the spring’s 75.6°F, the afternoon air runs 3.3 degrees warmer and the dawn air runs nearly 20 degrees colder. February afternoons, at 74.9°F, still average below the water. March is the first month of the year whose afternoons pass it.
Dress for two days inside one. Before nine the picnic areas sit in the fifties, and the 1,435 feet of boardwalk stay shaded long after the parking lot has warmed. By one o’clock a swimsuit is the right answer: the water is cool enough to catch your breath and never cold enough to keep you out. Sun cover matters more than warmth by then, since oak canopy shades the trails and nothing shades the swimming area.
On freezing nights we have to pass. The normals we read give monthly averages, not a count of mornings below 32°F, and we found no daily series for March at this station. What the average supports is this: a typical March low of 55.8°F sits nearly 24 degrees above freezing. Whether a given March morning dips to the mark, we cannot tell you from these figures.
How busy is Wekiwa Springs in March? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
March falls inside Florida’s dry season and inside its spring-break weeks, two crowd engines pointing the same way, on a park sitting within easy reach of the Orlando hotel belt. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for this area, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. The calendar is what we can state, and our state calendar puts the break weeks among the loudest of the year.
Booking the day itself is not something we can walk you through: floridastateparks.org answers automated reads with a 403, so we could not verify the entrance fee or the opening hour. What is fixed is 325 parking spaces. On a warm March weekend that number, not a clock, decides your morning, since the gate closes when the lot fills. Book the bed weeks out for break-week nights, treat the spring as a first-light stop, and let the lodging guide pick the base.
We could not verify the lodging-tax rate applied to Orlando-area stays, so we give no percentage. It is printed on the confirmation before you pay, and it is the line worth reading twice on a four-night stay.
The one place extra money changes a March day is the paddle. The state counts a single canoe, kayak and tube launch feeding 15.9 miles of paddling trail, and the gap between seeing the swimming area and seeing the run upstream is one boat. Rental rates were not among the figures we could read, so budget on the day or arrive with your own on the roof, as the driving guide assumes you will.
Things to do in Wekiwa Springs in March
March allows the two-ended day that July does not. Hike while the air is still in the sixties, swim once it has reached its 78.9°F average, and neither half is a compromise. In summer the trail becomes a heat decision and the water becomes the entire trip. In February, with afternoons averaging 74.9°F, the swim is colder than the air you left, which sends most families straight back to the picnic tables.
Counted by the state in its 2024 facilities inventory: one designated swimming area, one canoe, kayak and tube launch, 15.9 miles of paddling trail, 13.7 miles of hiking trail, 1,435 feet of boardwalk, 325 parking spaces. That inventory is the park’s real menu, and it does not change between January and July.
None of it moves with the calendar, and neither does the water. A USGS gauge in the spring run, station 02234600, read 75.6°F (24.2°C) on a September afternoon and reads close to that any day you check. The seasonal variable is the gap above it: 3.3 degrees between air and water in March, 8.0 degrees in April. That difference is why the same swim feels like a plunge one month and like relief the next.
Past the gate, the boardwalk and the trails cost nothing extra, and we could not read what the gate itself charges. We also found no March manatee count for this river, because the state’s manatee pages render in the browser and gave us no figure, so we promise nothing on that front. For the reliable version of that encounter, our manatee guide names the springs that publish counts.
Wekiwa Springs in March: a two-day itinerary
Day one starts cold and early. Sunrise on the 15th is 7:33 a.m., the lot holds 325 cars, so be parked by eight with a fleece on against an average low of 55.8°F. Walk the trails first while the air is in the sixties, take a few of the 13.7 miles rather than all of them, then the 1,435 feet of boardwalk before midday. Swim at one, when the air has reached 78.9°F and the water sits 3.3 degrees below it. Eat late, drive off by four.
Day two belongs to the launch. Put in by nine, turn back when your arms vote, and you still have light until 7:35 p.m. If the sky turns, remember the shape of March rain: 1.1 days of the month bring an inch or more, so it comes hard and goes. Check radar before you push off, swap the paddle for the canopy trails, and keep the swim on the plan regardless, since 75.6°F water reads the same in a downpour. Families can pair it with the kids guide.
Wekiwa Springs 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 |
| Precipitation | 2.04 in | 3.03 in | 2.58 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.8 | 4.0 | 3.9 |
| Spring water | 75.6°F | 75.6°F | 75.6°F |
| Afternoon air vs water | 0.7°F below | 3.3°F above | 8.0°F above |
The three months separate on air and not on water. Afternoons climb 74.9°F, 78.9°F, 83.6°F, four to five degrees a month, while the spring reads 75.6°F through all three. Rain refuses to follow that line: March is the wettest at 3.03 inches, a full inch above February, even though the count of wet days barely moves (3.8, then 4.0, then 3.9). March gets heavier rain on the days it rains, not more of them.
Shift back four weeks and you gain a quieter park and an inch less rain, and you lose the crossing, because February afternoons average below the spring and the swim becomes a dare. Shift forward four weeks and you gain the best swimming contrast of the three, eight degrees of air above water, and you lose the mornings that make a long hike comfortable: April lows run 60.7°F and its afternoons reach 83.6°F.
Is March a good time to visit Wekiwa Springs?
Yes, for anyone who wants both halves of the park on the same day: a morning on the trails in sixty-degree air, an afternoon in the water with the air above it. No, for anyone whose priority is space. Break weeks land on a park with 325 parking spaces and one swimming area, and the lot is what runs out first, long before the picnic tables do.
If crowds are the deal-breaker, February is the swap: 2.04 inches of rain instead of 3.03, 3.8 wet days instead of 4.0, and afternoons at 74.9°F that thin out the swimmers. Swimmers themselves should wait for April, when 83.6°F puts eight degrees between the air and the 75.6°F water and the first dip stops being a negotiation.
No other month stacks 12 hours of daylight, mornings cool enough for 13.7 miles of trail and afternoons warm enough to make 75.6°F water look inviting into a single day.
The last word
Choose by thermometer rather than calendar: April if you want the water to feel like relief, March if you want the whole day to work from 7:33 a.m. to 7:35 p.m. One fact to carry either way. Florida law names this spring by hand: statute 373.802 defines an Outstanding Florida Spring as every historic first-magnitude spring plus six named outright, De Leon, Peacock, Poe, Rock Springs, Wekiwa and Gemini. The state protected it without waiting for it to grow big enough. Check the park’s own page for the day’s fee and hours before you drive, because we could not read either.
Sources & data for this guide
- March air normals 1991-2020 (78.9°F high, 55.8°F low, 3.03 in, 4.0 days at 0.10 in, 1.1 day at 1 in) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals, station USW00012815, Orlando Intl AP · checked Sep 24, 2026
- February and April normals (74.9/52.4/2.04 in and 83.6/60.7/2.58 in) · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 series and station · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Sunrise 7:33 a.m., sunset 7:35 p.m. and 12h 02m of daylight on March 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC to local time · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Spring water 75.6°F (24.2°C) · USGS National Water Information System, station 02234600 Wekiwa Springs, instantaneous reading · checked Sep 24, 2026. This is a single reading, not a monthly mean. Coastal water tables usually publish averages of daily maxima, which run a little warmer than a 24-hour average; this gauge publishes neither, and we report what it showed.
- 325 parking spaces, 1 swimming area, 1 launch, 15.9 miles of paddling trail, 13.7 miles of hiking trail, 1,435 feet of boardwalk · Florida DEP Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Outstanding Florida Spring designation and the six springs named by hand · Florida Statutes 373.802(5) · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Not verified: entrance fee, opening hours and any March manatee count. floridastateparks.org returns 403 to automated reads and the state’s manatee pages render in the browser. We could not verify the lodging-tax rate for Orlando-area stays either, so we give no percentage.
To plan your stay
- Best Time to Visit Wekiwa Springs: Monthly Weather, the Swimming Season and the Quiet Months
- Wekiwa Springs in February: Weather, Water Temperature, Crowds and a Day Trip
- Wekiwa Springs in April: Weather, Crowds and the 75.6°F Spring Water
- Wekiwa Springs in January: Weather, Water Temperature, Crowds and a Two-Day Plan