Weather in Seattle in November

A hard month. November asks something of you. Go in knowing what. You should expect rain on 19 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

November ranks 9 of 12 in Seattle: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is wet-season rain: 19 wet days and 7 genuinely heavy ones, which in this climate means concentrated downpours rather than all-day grey. The pattern is usually a clear morning and a loud afternoon, so front-load the day and stop fighting the 3pm hour. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 10.4 °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: 3 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 21.8 °C and the coldest night fell to -8.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 74 mm — roughly 39% 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 403 mm against 50 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 188 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 3.2 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 89%, which at 10.4 °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 3.4 °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 Seattle's extremes of 16 and 8.5 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 21.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

November in Seattle versus nearby

If Seattle is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Maple Ridge is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain. Vancouver is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.6 °C cooler, 2 days more rain.

So: November is a compromise. July is 60 points better and is what Seattle 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 Seattle

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