What Are the Warmest Cities in Louisiana?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The warmest cities in Louisiana are New Orleans, Thibodaux, Morgan City (tie), and Lake Charles.
In this article I’m going to share with you my ranking of the warmest places in Louisiana.
I created my list by researching data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other climate data providers.
Below I’m listing the top 10 warmest places in Louisiana that have the highest average yearly temperatures. Later in the article I share a table with 30 most populous cities in Louisiana.
Top 10 Warmest Cities in Louisiana
Here are the top 10 warmest places in Louisiana ranked by their daily mean temperature. The entire state has the same subtropical climate with relatively small differences in temperatures.
1. New Orleans – daily mean temperature of 70.5 °F
The largest city in the state, New Orleans, is also the warmest city in Louisiana. With warm to hot temperatures year round, New Orleans offers a perfect climate for those who want to escape cold weather. According to weather data, during an average winter, between December and February, you can expect 63-66 °F during the day and 46-50 °F at night. Summers come with very high temperatures of 90-91 °F during the day and 75-77 °F at night. New Orleans gets 115 days of rain, with about 63 inches of precipitation. Despite a humid climate, it gets 2,648 sunshine hours a year.
2. Thibodaux – daily mean temperature of 70.1 °F
Thibodaux is a city of 16,000 people, located 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. At 79.6 °F, Thibodaux has the second highest average high temperatures in Louisiana out of the 30 most populous cities. This means that Thibodaux gets even warmer days than New Orleans. In the winter, it sees average highs of 64-68 °F compared to 63-66 °F in New Orleans. Summer days are warmer by about a degree. Nights are cooler by 1-2 degrees year round. Thibodaux also gets 19 days of rain more.
3. Morgan City – daily mean temperature of 70.1 °F
Morgan City is a town of 11,500 inhabitants, located 30 miles southwest of Thibodaux, on the Atchafalaya River and surrounded by Lake Palourde and Flat Lake. It gets similar temperatures to New Orleans, sometimes lower by a degree. Morgan City gets the lowest average annual precipitation in this ranking, at 58.51 inches a year.
4. Lake Charles – daily mean temperature of 69.7 °F
Lake Charles is a city of 88,000 people, located in Southwest Louisiana, about 30 miles from the border with Texas. Lake Charles experiences higher temperatures in the summer than the previous cities, reaching 91-93 °F during the day. In the winter, it has similar warm temperatures between 63-67 °F, though the average low temperature of 43-47 °F is colder than in other cities.
5. Houma – daily mean temperature of 69.5 °F
Houma is located 19 miles south of Thibodaux. With a population of 33,000 people, it’s one of the largest cities in Louisiana. Due to having the highest average high temperature (80 °F), Houma enjoys the warmest winter days out of all ten cities in this ranking. The average high temperatures are between 67-68 °F. Nights are cooler, though, with temperatures dropping to 45-47 °F.
6. Lafayette – daily mean temperature of 69.4 °F
Lafayette, the fourth largest city of Louisiana, has some of the lowest winter daytime temperatures in this ranking. They’re between 62-66 °F. Nights are between 44-47 °F. Summers are as hot as in the previous places, reaching on average 90-92 °F between June and August.
7. New Iberia – daily mean temperature of 69 °F
New Iberia, a city of 28,000 inhabitants, lies 21 miles southeast of Lafayette. It has a very similar climate to Lafayette, with nights that are on average a degree cooler.
8. Franklin – daily mean temperature of 68.85 °F
The small city of Franklin is located roughly halfway between Morgan City and New Iberia. It has some of the coolest summer temperatures on this list, with temperatures between 88-90 °F. They’re still very hot but at least 2 degrees cooler than in other places.
9. Baton Rouge – daily mean temperature of 68.45 °F
The second largest city of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, is situated on the Mississippi River northwest of New Orleans. Baton Rouge has the highest record temperature out of all places in this ranking: 110 °F, recorded in August. Its average temperatures differ primarily when it comes to average lows. In the winter, Baton Rouge experiences nights with temperatures of 42-45 °F, which is much cooler compared to 46-50 °F in New Orleans.
10. Abbeville – daily mean temperature of 68.35 °F
The tenth warmest city in Louisiana is the small city of Abbeville, located 21 miles southwest of Lafayette. Its climate has smaller differences between months, with warm winters reaching 64-66 °F during the day and summers going up to 90-91 °F.
30 Biggest Cities in Louisiana Ranked by Daily Mean Temperature
I created the table below by researching data for the most populous municipalities in Louisiana. When I couldn’t find data for a given city, I moved on to another. While the list includes 30 cities, some of the bigger cities may be missing because there was no data for them. Please check the closest geographically city then.
| City | Average high temperature (°F) | Average low temperature (°F) | Daily mean temperature (°F) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans | 78.5 | 62.5 | 70.5 |
| Thibodaux | 79.6 | 60.6 | 70.1 |
| Morgan City | 78.3 | 61.9 | 70.1 |
| Lake Charles | 79.3 | 60.1 | 69.7 |
| Houma | 80 | 59 | 69.5 |
| Lafayette | 78.8 | 60 | 69.4 |
| New Iberia | 79 | 59 | 69 |
| Franklin | 78 | 59.7 | 68.85 |
| Baton Rouge | 78.9 | 58 | 68.45 |
| Abbeville | 78.6 | 58.1 | 68.35 |
| Natchitoches | 79.2 | 57.4 | 68.3 |
| Crowley | 77.6 | 58.8 | 68.2 |
| Donaldsonville | 78.1 | 58.2 | 68.15 |
| Jennings | 77.2 | 58.4 | 67.8 |
| Eunice | 77.9 | 57.5 | 67.7 |
| Slidell | 76.7 | 58.6 | 67.65 |
| Tallulah | 78.7 | 56.4 | 67.55 |
| Bogalusa | 78.6 | 56 | 67.3 |
| Covington | 77.5 | 56.4 | 66.95 |
| Hammond | 78 | 55.5 | 66.75 |
| Shreveport | 77.5 | 55.6 | 66.55 |
| Alexandria | 76.6 | 56.5 | 66.55 |
| Leesville | 77.9 | 54.4 | 66.15 |
| Zachary | 76.1 | 55.6 | 65.85 |
| Monroe | 76.6 | 54.8 | 65.7 |
| Bossier City | 76.6 | 54.7 | 65.65 |
| Pineville | 77 | 54 | 65.5 |
| Minden | 77.3 | 53.4 | 65.35 |
| Bastrop | 73.9 | 52.7 | 63.3 |
| Ruston | 74.5 | 51.6 | 63.05 |
Check the Warmest Cities in Neighboring States
If you’re interested in learning about the warmest cities in states neighboring Louisiana, check out the following articles:
- What Are the Warmest Cities in Arkansas?
- What Are the Warmest Cities in Mississippi?
- What Are the Warmest Cities in Texas?
Also check my article on the warmest cities in the US in every state.
Frequently Asked Questions
The hottest part of Louisiana is South Louisiana. Some of the warmest cities of the state are in this region: New Orleans, Thibodaux, Morgan City, and Lake Charles.
Louisiana is colder than Florida. The annual average temperature for the 30 cities in Louisiana I researched for this article is 67.47 °F. Meanwhile for the 100 cities in Florida I researched for the article on the warmest places in Florida, the average is 73.3 °F so heat is much more intense and prevalent there.
Louisiana enjoys warm winters with average temperatures reaching 62-74 °F during the day and 43-50 °F at night in the warmest (and some of the most populous) cities of the state.
Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate without four distinct seasons. While winters come with cooler temperatures of about 62-74 °F during the day and 43-50 °F at night, 9 months of the year have temperatures above 70 °F and thus more resemble constant summer than spring or fall. Snow is also very rare.