Weather in Banff in November

The month to avoid. November is the month most people should skip in Banff. Highs sit at -1 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

November ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Banff's year. August is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 69 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 16 wet days but only 1 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at -1 °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: 29 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 8.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -32.9 °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 92 mm against 36 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 60 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 1.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 95%, which at -1 °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: 8.2 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 5.1 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

9 hours of daylight, losing 1.5 hours across the month. That is between Banff's extremes of 16.5 and 7.9 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 35.3 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 1388 m the air is thin enough to matter — sun that burns faster than the temperature suggests, and nights that cool off quickly.

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 Banff versus nearby

If Banff is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Calgary is a better bet in November — 4.5 °C warmer, 10 days less rain. Lethbridge is a better bet in November — 5.6 °C warmer, 8 days less rain.

So: November is a compromise. August is 67 points better and is what Banff 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 Banff

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