Weather in Rio de Janeiro in November

Shoulder season. November is shoulder season in Rio de Janeiro — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. You should expect rain on 20 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

November ranks 8 of 12 in Rio de Janeiro: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 20 of the month's 30 days, 7 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 82% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 5 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 5.3 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 35.4 °C and the coldest night fell to 17.2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 78 mm — roughly 35% of the month's rain in one day.

November is moderately variable: 84 mm in the driest year against 556 mm in the wettest, around an average of 220 mm. Roughly two Novembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 10 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 82%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How November sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 27.1 °C in October, 27 here, 28.1 in December. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 7 days more than October had.

Daylight in November

November is at or near the longest days of Rio de Janeiro's year: 13.2 hours of daylight, gaining 0.5 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 23.8 °C in November — comfortable for a proper swim. The sea peaks at 26.7 °C in March and bottoms out at 22.3 °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 Rio de Janeiro versus nearby

If Rio de Janeiro is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Belo Horizonte is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. São Paulo is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: November is a compromise. July is 26 points better and is what Rio de Janeiro 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 Rio de Janeiro

See all twelve months in Rio de Janeiro, or where else to go in November.