Weather in Le Havre in November

A hard month. November is a hard month in Le Havre, and worth planning around. Highs sit at 12 °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 Le Havre: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 16 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 12 °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 — 3.6 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 18 °C and the coldest night fell to 0.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 41 mm — roughly 46% 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 162 mm against 30 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 90 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind sits around 19 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 87%, which at 12 °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: 4 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 3.1 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

9.2 hours of daylight, losing 1.4 hours across the month. That is between Le Havre's extremes of 16.3 and 8.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 14.2 °C in November — cold — a quick dip rather than a swim, and a wetsuit if you are in for longer. The sea peaks at 17.4 °C in September and bottoms out at 8.6 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

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 Le Havre versus nearby

If Le Havre is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Paris is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 4 days less rain. London is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: November is a compromise. July is 35 points better and is what Le Havre 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 Le Havre

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