Weather in Port Douglas in November

A good month. November works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs average 29.5 °C, lows 24.4 °C, and rain falls on 11 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

November ranks 7 of 12 in Port Douglas: past the worst of the year but short of August, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 11 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 29.5 °C days and 24.4 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 8 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 5 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 38 °C and the coldest night fell to 22.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 68 mm — roughly 91% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. November rainfall has ranged from 1 mm to 285 mm across the twenty years measured — a 284 mm spread around an average of 75 mm. The average is real but almost no individual November looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 9.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 75%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How November sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 28.4 °C in October, 29.5 here, 30.4 in December. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: December brings 6 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in November

Port Douglas sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.9 hours in November, against a range of just 1.9 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 27.1 °C in November — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.2 °C in February and bottoms out at 24.7 °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

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 Port Douglas versus nearby

If Port Douglas is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Cairns is the weaker option in November — 2.6 °C warmer, 1 day more rain. Townsville is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.1 °C warmer, 4 days less rain.

So: November is a compromise. August is 22 points better and is what Port Douglas 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 Port Douglas

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