Weather in Nantes in November

Shoulder season. November is shoulder season in Nantes — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 12.9 °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 Nantes: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 14 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 12.9 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 21.1 °C and the coldest night fell to -4.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 37 mm — roughly 42% of the month's rain in one day.

November is moderately variable: 28 mm in the driest year against 189 mm in the wettest, around an average of 88 mm. Roughly two Novembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 11.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 90%, which at 12.9 °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: 5.1 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 3.6 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

9.4 hours of daylight, losing 1.3 hours across the month. That is between Nantes's extremes of 15.9 and 8.5 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 15.2 °C in November — cold — a quick dip rather than a swim, and a wetsuit if you are in for longer. The sea peaks at 20.5 °C in August and bottoms out at 11.1 °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 Nantes versus nearby

If Nantes is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Bordeaux is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Le Havre is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain.

So: November is a compromise. September is 35 points better and is what Nantes 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 Nantes

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