Pool closing · Louisiana
When to Close Your Pool in Metairie, LA: Deadline, Window & Checklist
Last updated: July 15, 2026 · Model window year: 2026 · dates · checklist · FAQ
In Metairie, the closing window runs from November 20 to November 30. Let the water cool out of the algae-growth range before covering — close too warm and you lift the cover onto a green surprise in spring — but finish ahead of the first freeze, which normals place around December 31. The live estimate below shows where Metairie's water sits today.
Metairie closing dates at a glance
| Closing window | November 20 – November 30 |
|---|---|
| Close by (deadline) | November 30 |
| First freeze, 50% probability | December 31 |
| Open by (recommended) | February 16 |
| Opening window | February 9 – March 2 |
| 61°F crossing (7-day mean) | March 2 |
| Swim-season length (80°F+ days) | 179 days |
| NOAA normals station | New Orleans International Airport · 4.4 mi · 4 ft |
A classic four-season pool calendar: open early into cold water, close late into cold water, and Metairie's 179 days of prime swimming sit safely in between.
Put dates aside and follow the water: the Metairie curve says roughly 69°F by mid-April, 82°F by mid-June, 84°F in mid-August, then back down through 75°F in mid-October. The summer ceiling sits near 84°F, and every window above is just a line drawn on this curve.
The 12-step Metairie winterizing checklist
A closing is a plumbing project with a chemistry warm-up. Start a few days ahead of your target date, keep every dose per its product label, and don't skip the photographs — spring-you reassembles from them.
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Balance the water a few days ahead
Start midweek for a weekend close: bring alkalinity and pH into their label ranges and let the water settle. What you seal under the cover is what the pool soaks in until spring.
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Deep-clean the pool
Skim, brush walls and steps, and vacuum carefully. Any leaves or algae you seal under the cover become spring's chemistry problem, so closing day cleanliness pays twice.
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Service the filter one last time
One final filter service per the manual — cartridges rinsed and stored dry indoors, sand or DE backwashed. Winter turns trapped gunk into concrete.
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Apply winter chemicals per label
Add a winterizing kit or your usual closing chemicals exactly as their labels direct for your volume, with the pump still circulating so everything distributes before shutdown.
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Lower the water level
Take the level down only as far as the cover's manual says — usually just below the skimmer for solid covers, higher for many mesh systems. An empty pool is never the goal; shells crack and shift without water's weight.
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Blow out the lines and plug returns
The blowout is the whole ballgame: drive air through each line until it runs dry, seat the plug against the airflow, move to the next. A dry line cannot burst, full stop.
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Protect the skimmer
Install a skimmer guard bottle (or a plug rated for your skimmer) so ice that forms there crushes the sacrificial piece instead of cracking the skimmer body.
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Add pool antifreeze where blowouts fall short
Antifreeze is the insurance policy for doubtful lines, not a replacement for the blowout: pool-grade product, label dosing, and only where air couldn't finish the job.
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Drain the equipment
Every vessel on the pad — pump, filter, heater, chlorinator — gets its drain plugs pulled. Drop all the plugs in the pump basket; that's the one place everyone looks first in spring.
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Set the air pillow and cover
Inflate the pillow to about two-thirds, center it, then bring the cover over and secure it per its design. Under ice, that soft dome is the difference between inward compression and outward wall pressure.
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Calendar the off-season checks
Set a monthly reminder from November 30 to spring: check cover tension, pump off standing water, and glance at the water level. Fifteen minutes a month protects the whole closing job.
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Winterize the water features
Waterfalls, slides, and spillover spas hold water in places gravity won't clear — blow those lines separately and plug them, or they'll be the one crack you find in spring.
What to buy before the rush
Every item below sells out somewhere in Louisiana every November. Stocking the short list before the rush costs nothing extra and saves the mid-project store run — the chemicals guide explains what each category actually does.
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Expansion plugs + skimmer guard
The blowout's finishing move — one per return, one for the skimmer.
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Pool antifreeze
For lines you can't verify dry — pool-grade only, per label.
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Winter closing kit
The under-the-cover chemistry, measured for your gallons.
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Air pillow
Centers under the cover so ice pushes inward, not outward.
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Winter cover
Measure with overlap; the winter workhorse over everything else.
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Cover pump
Keeps rain and melt off a solid cover all season.
How Metairie compares locally
Statewide context: across the 13 Louisiana cities we model, Metairie's November 30 deadline sits in the earliest quarter. Nearby, Kenner (5 mi) closes around November 30 and New Orleans (16 mi) around December 2 — treat gaps under a week as microclimate noise, not strategy. Spring planning restarts at the opening guide; the Metairie pool season page keeps the whole year in one view.
Local means local: Metairie's dates come from New Orleans International Airport, the nearest station with complete daily temperature normals — 4.4 miles west, about 4 feet up. Between that station and a Jefferson County backyard there's always a degree or two of microclimate; the windows are built wide enough to carry it.
Field notes for Metairie owners
The fifteen-minute monthly walk-around
Once a month all winter: pump or siphon standing water off solid covers, re-tension straps or top up water bags, confirm the level hasn't dropped enough to strand the cover, and glance at the pad for critter nests. Every major cover failure starts as a skipped walk-around.
Gas heaters get the manual, not a guess
Every heater brand sequences its winterizing differently — drain plugs, blower considerations, gas supply, control settings. The generic advice (drain fully, close the valve) is right but incomplete; ten minutes with your model's manual protects the most expensive component you'll winterize.
Salt cells overwinter indoors
Remove the cell at closing, inspect and clean per the manufacturer, and store it inside with the unions capped. A dummy cell or spacer keeps the plumbing sealed. Cells left in outdoor plumbing through freezes are a common — and completely avoidable — spring casualty.
Don't close a pool people are still using
With Metairie's long season, the question isn't "is it November?" but "has the water actually cooled?" The window running to November 30 exists because warm-water closings breed spring algae. If swimmers keep showing up through November, let them — patience here is free maintenance.
Metairie pool closing FAQ
What temperature should water be to close a pool?
The practical target is water in the low 60s°F or below at closing day. Our Metairie model has the sustained cool-down starting November 20; closing between then and November 30 means chemistry stays put and the spring reveal is a mild one.
Can you close a pool too early?
Yes — it's the most common closing mistake. Seal 70°F water under a cover and algae keep growing in the dark all autumn; the spring opening turns green and expensive. In Metairie, hold off until the cool-down near November 20 before covering.
Do I need antifreeze in pool lines?
Only for lines you can't verify dry — a proper blowout makes antifreeze unnecessary. Where doubt remains, use pool-grade product at its label rate, never automotive. No freeze-probability normal is published near Metairie, so let the live forecast, not a calendar, tell you when freeze protection starts mattering.
How far should I drain my pool for winter?
Follow the cover's instructions first: solid covers usually want water a few inches below the skimmer; some mesh setups run higher with the skimmer sealed. The hard rule is never empty — hydrostatic pressure can lift or crack an empty pool, a far worse outcome than any freeze.
What happens if you don't winterize a pool?
Two failure modes. Where freezes reach the plumbing, expansion cracks pumps, filters, and fittings from the inside. Where they don't, an unwatched pool simply drifts green and unbalanced by spring. Metairie has no published freeze normal to pin the date, so the winterizing above plus forecast-watching covers both risks.
When is the last safe date to close in Metairie?
November 30, by our model — the cool-down plus ten days (the freeze normal, December 31, leaves room to spare). Later closes happen, but they happen in gloves. The winterizing steps above take a weekend; leave yourself at least that much runway before Metairie's first freeze-risk stretch.
Email me when Metairie hits the closing window
Data: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals via New Orleans International Airport (4.4 mi); live outlook by Open-Meteo. Full attribution on the sources page. Model assumptions and error bars on methodology.