Weather in Hamilton in November

A hard month. November is a hard month in Hamilton, 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 8 of 12 in Hamilton: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 12 days, 1 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: 15 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 23.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -13.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 34 mm — roughly 54% 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 117 mm against 19 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 63 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 11.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 84%, 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: 7.5 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 6.8 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

9.8 hours of daylight, losing 1.1 hours across the month. That is between Hamilton's extremes of 15.4 and 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 — 39 °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 Hamilton versus nearby

If Hamilton is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Toronto is the weaker option in November — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain. Buffalo is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain.

So: November is a compromise. September is 37 points better and is what Hamilton 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 Hamilton

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