Pool closing · Nevada
When to Close Your Pool in Paradise, NV: Deadline, Window & Checklist
Last updated: July 15, 2026 · Model window year: 2026 · dates · checklist · FAQ
Plan to close your Paradise pool by November 16. The local 7-day mean temperature drops out of the algae-risk zone around November 6, and NOAA normals put the first 32°F freeze near December 15 — winterize between those dates and the water goes under the cover cold, clean, and easy to reopen. Below: today's water estimate, the full closing window, and a step-by-step winterizing checklist.
Paradise closing dates at a glance
| Closing window | November 6 – November 16 |
|---|---|
| Close by (deadline) | November 16 |
| First freeze, 50% probability | December 15 |
| Open by (recommended) | March 3 |
| Opening window | February 24 – March 17 |
| 61°F crossing (7-day mean) | March 17 |
| Swim-season length (80°F+ days) | 180 days |
| NOAA normals station | Las Vegas Mccarran Airport · 1.9 mi · 2131 ft |
Closing is close to optional here — many Paradise owners trade the cover for shorter pump hours and swim the shoulder seasons. If you do close, the late window above still applies.
Four water checkpoints anchor Paradise's year in the model: mid-April at about 66°F, mid-June at 86°F, mid-August near the 92°F peak zone, and mid-October easing through 74°F. The dates in the table are where those numbers cross the thresholds that matter.
The 12-step Paradise 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
Do the chemistry midweek, close on the weekend: alkalinity and pH into label ranges with days of circulation left to spread them. Winter locks in whatever state the water holds on closing day.
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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
Send the filter into winter clean: backwash the sand or DE, rinse and dry the cartridges indoors. Media stored dirty over winter hardens into a spring problem no backwash fixes.
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Apply winter chemicals per label
Winter chemicals go in before shutdown, not after: label-dosed, circulated for a few hours, distributed evenly. A floater dropped on still water protects one corner.
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Lower the water level
Your cover's manual sets the number — commonly a few inches under the skimmer for solid covers, barely below normal for mesh. Stop there. The remaining water isn't laziness; it's ballast holding the shell in the ground.
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Blow out the lines and plug returns
Work line by line: push air until the return spits dry mist, plug it against the flowing air, move on. Skimmer, returns, cleaner line, in whatever order your plumbing prefers — dry pipes are the entire point of closing.
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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
Any line you can't prove is dry gets pool-grade antifreeze at the label's rate per foot. Automotive antifreeze is toxic in this context — pool-rated only, always.
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Drain the equipment
Nothing on the pad should hold water overnight: pull the drain plugs from pump, filter, heater, and feeder, stash them all in the pump basket, and carry the portable pieces indoors.
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Set the air pillow and cover
Pillow first, cover second, tension last. A properly centered pillow turns the winter ice sheet from a wall-pressing ram into a harmless dome.
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Note this year's dates
Jot down when Paradise's water actually cooled and when you closed. A two-line note beats memory next November 6 — your own yard runs a few days off any model, including ours.
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Stage the cover pump
Solid covers need drainage all winter: set a cover pump or siphon before the first storm, not after. Standing water strains seams and invites a mid-winter emergency.
What to buy before the rush
Every item below sells out somewhere in Nevada 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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Air pillow
A soft target for the ice sheet, centered under the cover.
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Winter cover
Sized to overlap; the cheapest insurance the pool wears all winter.
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Cover pump
Keeps rain and melt off a solid cover all season.
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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
Backup for unverifiable lines; label rate per foot of pipe.
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Winter closing kit
The under-the-cover chemistry, measured for your gallons.
How Paradise compares locally
Paradise closes in the earliest quarter of Nevada's calendar. Neighbors run close: Spring Valley (7 mi away) models its deadline at November 13 (3 days earlier vs Paradise's November 16), while Henderson (7 mi) shows November 16. The spring mirror of this page is the Paradise opening guide, and the season overview draws both windows on a single bar.
The instrument behind this page is Las Vegas Mccarran Airport, 1.9 miles southwest of Paradise — the closest station publishing complete 1991–2020 daily temperature normals. Thirty years of its readings set every date above; your own yard adds or subtracts a degree with shade, wind, and pavement, which is what the window's width is for.
Field notes for Paradise owners
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.
Match the drainage plan to the cover
Solid covers shed nothing — they need a cover pump staged before the first storm and checked after each one. Mesh covers drain themselves but pass silt that settles all winter. Either way, the plan is decided in October, not improvised in January when the cover is an ice sheet.
Leaf season vs closing day
If your yard drops serious leaves, the cheap trick is a leaf net over the main cover through the drop, then one bulk removal before snow. Leaves that winter on (or worse, under) the cover steep like tea and hand you stained water and clogged pumps in spring.
The case for a shorter off-season
Paradise's climate leaves water usable well past most owners' patience. If the family still swims in November, don't rush the cover — the model window runs to November 16 for a reason. Closing late and cold beats closing early and warm in every spring-condition metric that matters.
Paradise pool closing FAQ
What temperature should water be to close a pool?
Cold enough that biology has clocked out — below 65°F and falling, ideally low 60s. The widget above tracks Paradise's actual water; the normals say the durable cool-down arrives near November 6, and anything inside the window to November 16 closes clean.
Can you close a pool too early?
Early closing is the mistake the whole model is built to prevent from the other direction. A cover installed over 70°F water is a terrarium: sanitizer decays, algae compound, nobody looks for months. Paradise's water isn't reliably out of that zone until about November 6 — the calendar's first cold weekend doesn't change that.
Do I need antifreeze in pool lines?
It depends entirely on your confidence in the blowout. Lines that blew fully dry need nothing; anything uncertain — low runs, water features, a stubborn cleaner line — gets pool-grade antifreeze at the label's rate per foot. With Paradise's freeze clock starting near December 15, uncertainty is the thing to eliminate.
How far should I drain my pool for winter?
Only to the line your cover manufacturer prints — a few inches below the skimmer for most solid covers, close to operating level for many mesh designs with the skimmer plugged. The water you leave in is structural: it holds the shell against groundwater all winter.
What happens if you don't winterize a pool?
In a freeze climate, physics wins: water expands about 9% when it freezes, cracking pump housings, filter tanks, heat exchangers, and pipes. With Paradise's first 32°F night arriving near December 15 in the normals, an unwinterized pad is a spring repair bill waiting to be discovered.
When is the last safe date to close in Paradise?
The model draws the line at November 16 for Paradise. It isn't arbitrary: the cool-down plus ten days (the freeze normal, December 15, leaves room to spare), and the whole closing sequence needs a working weekend of margin. The one exception that overrides any date — a hard freeze inside the 10-day forecast, which the widget above flags as urgent.
Email me when Paradise hits the closing window
Data: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals via Las Vegas Mccarran Airport (1.9 mi); live outlook by Open-Meteo. Full attribution on the sources page. Model assumptions and error bars on methodology.