Weather in Kingston in November

A hard month. November asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 8 °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 Kingston: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 15 wet days but only 2 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 °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: 7 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 5.2 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 18.2 °C and the coldest night fell to -9.7 °C.

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 124 mm against 37 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 77 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 10.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 81%, which at 8 °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: 6.2 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 6 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

9.7 hours of daylight, losing 1.1 hours across the month. That is between Kingston's extremes of 15.5 and 8.9 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 31.6 °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 Kingston versus nearby

If Kingston is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Ottawa is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.4 °C cooler, 2 days less rain. Peterborough is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 5 days less rain.

So: November is a compromise. September is 41 points better and is what Kingston 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 Kingston

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