Weather in Tofino in November

The month to avoid. Of the twelve, November is the one to avoid. You should expect rain on 21 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

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

Rain on 21 of the month's 30 days, 11 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 9.8 °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: the day barely swings — 3 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 15.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -6.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 91 mm — roughly 29% of the month's rain in one day.

November is moderately variable: 148 mm in the driest year against 673 mm in the wettest, around an average of 314 mm. Roughly two Novembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 11 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 87%, which at 9.8 °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: 3.5 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 2.3 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

9.2 hours of daylight, losing 1.4 hours across the month. That is between Tofino's extremes of 16.2 and 8.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 10.8 °C in November — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 14.4 °C in August and bottoms out at 8.4 °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 Tofino versus nearby

If Tofino is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Nanaimo is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain. Vancouver is close enough to be a coin toss — 2 °C cooler, the same number of rain days.

So: November is a compromise. July is 47 points better and is what Tofino 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 Tofino

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