Weather in Washington in November

Shoulder season. November is shoulder season in Washington — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 13.5 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

November ranks 6 of 12 in Washington: past the worst of the year but short of October, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 8 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 13.5 °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: 6 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest November day reached 25.7 °C and the coldest night fell to -5.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 47 mm — roughly 59% of the month's rain in one day.

November is moderately variable: 21 mm in the driest year against 189 mm in the wettest, around an average of 80 mm. Roughly two Novembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 10 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 79%, which at 13.5 °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: 6.7 °C cooler than October, with December dropping another 6 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in November

November sits at the dark end of Washington's year — 10.1 hours of daylight against 14.9 at midsummer, losing 0.9 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 34.4 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

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 Washington versus nearby

If Washington is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Richmond is the weaker option in November — 4.9 °C cooler, 12 days more rain. Philadelphia is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: November is a compromise. October is 19 points better and is what Washington 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 Washington

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