Fall Weather in New Orleans United States

Daily high temperatures decrease by 22°F, from 90°F to 68°F, rarely falling below 57°F or exceeding 94°F.

Daily low temperatures decrease by 23°F, from 77°F to 54°F, rarely falling below 43°F or exceeding 81°F.

For reference, on July 13, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in New Orleans typically range from 78°F to 92°F, while on January 8, the coldest day of the year, they range from 47°F to 63°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average fall temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Nanning, China (8,601 miles away) and Meizhou, China (8,315 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to New Orleans (view comparison).

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Compare New Orleans to another city:

CompareMap

The fall in New Orleans experiences decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 49% to 39%. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 33% on October 25.

The clearest day of the fall is October 25, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 67% of the time.

For reference, on July 28, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 60%, while on October 25, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 67%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In New Orleans, the chance of a wet day over the course of the fall is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 44% and ending it at 25%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 60% on July 28, and its lowest chance is 20% on October 29.

Rainfall

To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the fall in New Orleans is rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 5.3 inches, when it rarely exceeds 10.8 inches or falls below 2.2 inches, and ending the season at 3.8 inches, when it rarely exceeds 7.0 inches or falls below 1.3 inches.

The lowest average 31-day accumulation is 3.3 inches on October 16.

Over the course of the fall in New Orleans, the length of the day is very rapidly decreasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day decreases by 2 hours, 22 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 1 minute, 35 seconds, and weekly decrease of 11 minutes, 4 seconds.

The shortest day of the fall is November 30, with 10 hours, 22 minutes of daylight and the longest day is September 1, with 12 hours, 44 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the fall in New Orleans is 7:15 AM on November 2 and the earliest sunrise is 59 minutes earlier at 6:16 AM on November 3.

The latest sunset is 7:22 PM on September 1 and the earliest sunset is 2 hours, 22 minutes earlier at 5:00 PM on November 30.

Daylight saving time (DST) starts at 1:00 AM on November 3, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour later.

For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:59 AM and sets 14 hours, 5 minutes later, at 8:04 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 6:52 AM and sets 10 hours, 13 minutes later, at 5:05 PM.

The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the fall of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy in New Orleans is very rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling from 91% to 9% over the course of the season.

For reference, on July 22, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 98% of the time, while on January 16, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 5% of the time.

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed in New Orleans is rapidly increasing during the fall, increasing from 7.7 miles per hour to 10.4 miles per hour over the course of the season.

For reference, on March 6, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 10.9 miles per hour, while on August 7, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.0 miles per hour.

The wind direction in New Orleans during the fall is predominantly out of the east from September 1 to November 17 and the north from November 17 to November 30.

New Orleans is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water.

The average surface water temperature in New Orleans is very rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 19°F, from 84°F to 66°F, over the course of the season.

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

While it does not do so every year, freezing temperatures are seen in New Orleans over some winters. The day least likely to be in the growing season is January 10, with a 53% chance.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days in New Orleans are very rapidly increasing during the fall, increasing by 2,002°F, from 5,472°F to 7,474°F, over the course of the season.

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in New Orleans is rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 1.8 kWh, from 5.1 kWh to 3.3 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of New Orleans are 29.955 deg latitude, -90.075 deg longitude, and 3 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of New Orleans is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 13 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 5 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (827 feet). Within 50 miles also contains very significant variations in elevation (827 feet).

The area within 2 miles of New Orleans is covered by artificial surfaces (84%), within 10 miles by artificial surfaces (45%) and herbaceous vegetation (29%), and within 50 miles by herbaceous vegetation (52%) and water (32%).