Weather in Indianapolis in November

Shoulder season. November sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs sit at 10.9 °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 Indianapolis: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 9 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 10.9 °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 25.2 °C and the coldest night fell to -12.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 47 mm — roughly 57% 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 153 mm against 28 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 82 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 11.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 80%, which at 10.9 °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 6.9 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

November sits at the dark end of Indianapolis's year — 10 hours of daylight against 15 at midsummer, losing 1 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 35.6 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

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

November in Indianapolis versus nearby

If Indianapolis is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Louisville is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.1 °C warmer, 1 day more rain. Fort Wayne is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: November is a compromise. September is 31 points better and is what Indianapolis 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 Indianapolis

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