Weather in Des Moines in November

A hard month. November is a hard month in Des Moines, and worth planning around. Highs sit at 9.6 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

November ranks 9 of 12 in Des Moines: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain falls on only 6 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 9.6 °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: 18 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 24.8 °C and the coldest night fell to -13.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 56 mm — roughly 133% of the month's rain in one day.

November is moderately variable: 5 mm in the driest year against 112 mm in the wettest, around an average of 42 mm. Roughly two Novembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 12.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 77%, which at 9.6 °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: 7.7 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 7.8 °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 Des Moines's extremes of 15.2 and 9.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Des Moines has no sea to moderate it, and it shows: 40.3 °C separates the hottest afternoon of the year from the coldest night. That is a genuinely continental range, and it means summer and winter here are barely the same place.

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 Des Moines versus nearby

If Des Moines is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Omaha is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Kansas City is a better bet in November — 2.9 °C warmer, 1 day less rain.

So: November is a compromise. September is 32 points better and is what Des Moines 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 Des Moines

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