Weather in Edinburgh in November

A hard month. November asks something of you. Go in knowing what. 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 9 of 12 in Edinburgh: past the worst of the year but short of August, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 17 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 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: the day barely swings — 4.1 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 14.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -1.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 29 mm — roughly 37% 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 137 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 79 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 15.6 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 93%, 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: 3.7 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 2.4 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

8.3 hours of daylight, losing 1.9 hours across the month. That is between Edinburgh's extremes of 17.6 and 7 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 16.3 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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 Edinburgh versus nearby

If Edinburgh is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Glasgow is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain. Manchester is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: November is a compromise. August is 28 points better and is what Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh

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