Weather in St. John's in November

The month to avoid. Of the twelve, November is the one to avoid. Highs sit at 6.1 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

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

Rain on 17 days, 4 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 6.1 °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: 4 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 3.4 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 13.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 48 mm — roughly 38% 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 195 mm against 59 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 128 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind sits around 20.4 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 86%, which at 6.1 °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: 4.1 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 3.8 °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 St. John's's extremes of 15.9 and 8.5 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 4.6 °C in November — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 14.2 °C in August and bottoms out at -1 °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

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 St. John's versus nearby

If St. John's is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Sydney is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain. Halifax is a better bet in November — 2.1 °C warmer, 5 days less rain.

So: November is a compromise. August is 42 points better and is what St. John's 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 St. John's

See all twelve months in St. John's, or where else to go in November.