Weather in Cairns in November

Shoulder season. November is shoulder season in Cairns — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs average 32.1 °C, lows 23.4 °C, and rain falls on 12 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

November ranks 7 of 12 in Cairns: past the worst of the year but short of August, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 12 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 32.1 °C days and 23.4 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 25 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 41.8 °C and the coldest night fell to 20.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 59 mm — roughly 69% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. November rainfall has ranged from 1 mm to 370 mm across the twenty years measured — a 369 mm spread around an average of 86 mm. The average is real but almost no individual November looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 6.5 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 74%.

How November sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 31.1 °C in October, 32.1 here, 32.6 in December. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: December brings 5 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in November

November is at or near the longest days of Cairns's year: 12.9 hours of daylight, gaining 0.4 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 27.1 °C in November — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.2 °C in February and bottoms out at 24.7 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

November in Cairns versus nearby

If Cairns is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Port Douglas is a better bet in November — 2.6 °C cooler, 1 day less rain. Townsville is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 5 days less rain.

So: November is a compromise. August is 35 points better and is what Cairns 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 Cairns

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