Weather in Chicago in November

A hard month. November is a hard month in Chicago, and worth planning around. Highs sit at 8.6 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

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

Rain on 8 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 8.6 °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: 5 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 5.1 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 19.8 °C and the coldest night fell to -8.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 34 mm — roughly 56% of the month's rain in one day.

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 126 mm against 17 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 61 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind sits around 19.5 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 80%, which at 8.6 °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: 6.6 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 6 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

9.9 hours of daylight, losing 1 hours across the month. That is between Chicago's extremes of 15.2 and 9.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 30.2 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

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 Chicago versus nearby

If Chicago is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Milwaukee is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Grand Rapids is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain.

So: November is a compromise. September is 33 points better and is what Chicago 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 Chicago

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