Weather in Sapporo in November

The month to avoid. November is the month most people should skip in Sapporo. Highs sit at 7.1 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

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

Rain on 20 of the month's 30 days, 4 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. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 7.1 °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: 13 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 19.3 °C and the coldest night fell to -8.9 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 37 mm — roughly 29% 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 236 mm against 80 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 129 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 5.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 88%, which at 7.1 °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: 8 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 7.5 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

9.8 hours of daylight, losing 1.1 hours across the month. That is between Sapporo's extremes of 15.3 and 9 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 13.7 °C in November — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 20.5 °C in August and bottoms out at 3.5 °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 Sapporo versus nearby

If Sapporo is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Sendai is a better bet in November — 5.2 °C warmer, 1 day less rain. Niigata is a better bet in November — 7.3 °C warmer, the same number of rain days.

So: November is a compromise. June is 57 points better and is what Sapporo 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 Sapporo

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