Weather in San Francisco in November

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, November is the one. Highs average 17.8 °C, lows 9.2 °C, and rain falls on 7 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

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

Rain on 7 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 17.8 °C days and 9.2 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

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 28.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 1.2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 51 mm — roughly 82% of the month's rain in one day.

November is moderately variable: 14 mm in the driest year against 152 mm in the wettest, around an average of 62 mm. Roughly two Novembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 76%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How November sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 4.8 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 3.9 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip. Rain is the thing that moves: December brings 5 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in November

November sits at the dark end of San Francisco's year — 10.2 hours of daylight against 14.8 at midsummer, losing 0.9 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

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 15.7 °C in September and bottoms out at 12.2 °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 San Francisco versus nearby

If San Francisco is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Napa is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days. San Jose is a better bet in November — 2.3 °C warmer, 1 day less rain.

So: November is a compromise. July is 21 points better and is what San Francisco 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 San Francisco

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