Weather in Aspen in November

The month to avoid. November is the month most people should skip in Aspen. Highs sit at 5.7 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

November ranks 8 of 12 in Aspen: past the worst of the year but short of June, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 10 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 5.7 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 24 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 17.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -26.3 °C.

November is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest November on record still delivered 70 mm against 18 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 42 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 2.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 75%, which at 5.7 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How November sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 7.3 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 6.5 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

10.1 hours of daylight, losing 0.9 hours across the month. That is between Aspen's extremes of 14.9 and 9.4 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 39.6 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 2405 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

November in Aspen versus nearby

If Aspen is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Denver is a better bet in November — 8.4 °C warmer, 5 days less rain. Moab is a better bet in November — 8.8 °C warmer, 5 days less rain.

So: November is a compromise. June is 63 points better and is what Aspen is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Aspen

See all twelve months in Aspen, or where else to go in November.