Miami in November: Weather, Rain Days, Sea Temperature and Prices

MIAMI · NOVEMBER · 25.8° N

November is the month Miami exhales. The average high at Miami International settles at 81.3°F, rain drops to 3.53 inches from October’s 7.65, and the ocean off the beach still reads 81.7°F. What the month takes back happens at the far end of the day: on November 15 the sun sets at 5:33 p.m., so the light that makes Ocean Drive photogenic is gone before dinner. And hurricane season, officially, runs to the 30th.

Florida dates its dry season from November statewide. South Florida runs a month behind that label: the reliably warm, reliably dry stretch here is December through April, and November is the hinge between the wet half of the year and the expensive half. Rates have not reached February levels. Mosquitoes have thinned inland. And the water is warmer now than it will be in December, January or February.

On this page

• Miami weather in November81.3°F highs, 68.3°F lows, 4.7 wet days
• Can you swim in November?81.7°F sea surface
• Crowds and hotel pricesBetween the August low and the February peak
• Things to do in Miami in NovemberVizcaya at $20, PAMM free Thursdays, Lummus Park
• A two-day plan for short daylightTwo days, hour by hour
• November vs October and DecemberThree months of NOAA normals side by side
• Is November a good time to visit?Yes for swimmers, no for long afternoons

Two figures set the month. Rain falls to 3.53 inches, less than half of October’s 7.65 at the same gauge. The sun sets at 5:33 p.m. on the 15th, roughly an hour and a half earlier than the beach habits most visitors pack. Warm water, short light, and rooms still priced below their winter level.

Miami weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days

Those figures come from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information: the 1991-2020 monthly normals for station USW00012839, the gauge at Miami International Airport. That is a single official station with a continuous record. The alternative many sites publish is a reanalysis grid cell averaging ocean and inland into one value. The distinction earns a minute of your attention, because the gauge sits a dozen miles of causeway from South Beach, and a rain total measured inland is not a promise about the sand.

Rain days are the more useful number. In an average November, 4.7 days record at least 0.10 inch and exactly 1.0 day records an inch or more. Call it one wet day in six, with one genuine soaking somewhere in the month. Dry-season rain in South Florida tends to pass through rather than settle in, which is an editorial reading of the pattern and not a normal. The Atlantic hurricane season does not close until November 30, though NOAA’s hurricane center puts most activity between mid-August and mid-October.

Between the 81.3°F average high and the 68.3°F average low sits a spread of 13 degrees. The low itself lands in the dark hour before a 6:37 a.m. sunrise, so evenings feel like the middle of that range rather than the bottom. One long-sleeve layer covers the whole month: a 7 p.m. terrace, a boat deck on Biscayne Bay, the air conditioning in most restaurants. No coat, and no tank top after dark either.

November 15 gives about 10 hours 55 minutes of daylight, sunrise at 6:37 a.m. and sunset at 5:33 p.m. Eastern time, with the clocks already off daylight saving. Golden hour on Ocean Drive therefore falls near 5 p.m. Anything with a last admission, and Vizcaya’s is 4:30 p.m., belongs in the middle of the day. A sunset dinner in Miami starts earlier in November than the plan you sketched in June.

Can you swim in Miami in November? Sea temperature and what it feels like

The sea surface off Miami averages 81.7°F in November. That comes from the Open-Meteo Marine model, averaged over 2015-2024, and it is the mean of daily maxima rather than a 24-hour mean, so read it as a shade warmer than the water you meet at 8 a.m. October runs 84.5°F and December 79.1°F on the same series. Even discounted for the daily-max effect, November water sits closer to October than to December.

In practice, you walk in without the sharp intake of breath. Children stay in until they are bored rather than until they are cold, and an hour of swimming needs no towel ceremony afterward. Lummus Park, the beach fronting Ocean Drive between 5th and 15th Streets, is free, open 24 hours and lifeguarded, with public restrooms and picnic tables. For calmer, shallower water, Crandon Park on Key Biscayne charges $7 to park on weekdays and $10 at weekends.

Wind and swell are where our data stops. What we hold for November covers air temperature, rainfall, daylight and sea surface, and none of it describes an average wind speed or wave height at Miami Beach. The lifeguard flags on the sand answer that question morning by morning, and reading them beats a figure we cannot source.

How busy is Miami in November? Crowds, prices and the demand peak

Miami hotel rates run their annual low from August through October and their high from February through April. That is market behavior relayed by the trade rather than an official series, and November sits on the upslope between the two. Arrive in the first week and the August logic still mostly applies. Arrive in the last week and the winter season has begun pricing itself accordingly.

Lead time follows the same curve. For the first half of the month, four to six weeks of notice generally gets the room you saw at the rate you saw (est.). For the last ten days, book as though it were January (est.). One rule holds across all thirty days: a refundable rate is worth its premium until November 30, because that is the day the Atlantic hurricane season officially ends.

Then comes the layer that never appears in the headline price. Miami-Dade County levies a 6.0% transient rental tax, filed and paid alongside Florida’s 6% state sales tax, so a $220 room bills at $246.40 before anything else. Miami Beach hotels commonly add a nightly resort fee on top, and published amounts diverge badly, from roughly $25 on average to $35-95 depending on the property. Read that line before comparing two rates, or use our Florida cost guide for the same arithmetic statewide.

With sunset at 5:33 p.m., the upgrade that actually changes November is the walk to the water. A room three blocks from the sand buys a swim between 4 and 5:15 p.m. that a room across the causeway does not. Nearly everything else has a free substitute: the Miami Beach trolley runs 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on five routes, about every 20 minutes, and the Metromover through Downtown and Brickell costs nothing. Where to stay in Florida sorts the bases.

Things to do in Miami in November

November is when both halves of South Florida fit into one day. Summer here means highs near 90°F, humidity between 85 and 90 percent, and an afternoon thunderstorm on most days. At 81.3°F and 3.53 inches, a morning swim and an afternoon on a sawgrass boardwalk stop competing. The Everglades are drying out an hour west, and the mosquitoes go down with the water, as our Everglades guide lays out.

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, in north Coconut Grove inside the City of Miami, opens Wednesday to Monday from 9:30 a.m. with last admission at 4:30 p.m., and closes Tuesdays. Adult tickets are $20 during the current restoration work, down from the usual $25, children 6 to 12 pay $5 and under-6 enter free. The Vizcaya Metrorail station is a few minutes’ walk. South Pointe Park is free to enter, with its public lot from $2 an hour and a $20 flat day rate on weekends and public holidays.

The free column is unusually long this month. Lummus Park costs nothing and never closes. The Metromover is free across Downtown and Brickell, with cars every 90 seconds at rush hour and every three minutes off-peak, though published hours disagree: Miami-Dade gives 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., other sources give 5 a.m. to midnight. And the Perez Art Museum Miami is free from 5 to 9 p.m. every Thursday, then free all day on the second Saturday, with art-making from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Miami in November: a two-day itinerary

Day one, beach side. A 6:37 a.m. sunrise justifies one early start, and Lummus Park at seven has the sand nearly to itself. Swim from 10 to noon while the sun is high and the 81.7°F water reads warmest. Lunch off Collins, then the free trolley north for an hour of Mid Beach. Be back at the water or on a rooftop by 4:45 p.m., because the light is finished at 5:33 and no amount of planning moves it.

Day two, mainland. Metrorail to Vizcaya for the 9:30 a.m. opening, two hours in the gardens, then the Metromover loop through Brickell and Downtown for nothing at all. Make it a Thursday and PAMM’s free 5 to 9 p.m. window closes the day at the hour daylight quits anyway. If the wet day in six lands on you, invert the order: Vizcaya’s house, PAMM’s galleries and a Little Havana coffee counter absorb an inch of rain better than a beach umbrella does.

Miami in November vs October and December

October is warmer in every column and wetter by more than double: 85.9°F highs, 74.2°F nights, 7.65 inches of rain over 9.0 wet days, and a sea surface of 84.5°F. December cools to 78.2°F by day and 64.3°F after dark, with 2.44 inches over 3.7 wet days and water at 79.1°F. November lands close to the midpoint on temperature and much nearer December on rain, which is the whole reason to consider it.

Shift four weeks earlier and you gain 2.8 degrees of sea and 4.6 degrees of daytime air, then accept twice the rainfall and the tail of the season’s most active stretch (NOAA: mid-August to mid-October). Shift four weeks later and you give up 2.6 degrees of sea and 3.1 of daytime warmth in exchange for the driest weather South Florida has, against a market climbing toward its February peak. Both cases run in full in Miami in October and Miami in December.

Is November a good time to visit Miami?

Yes for swimmers, and yes for anyone who wants the Atlantic and the Everglades in the same trip. Water at 81.7°F, 4.7 wet days and 68.3°F evenings is a strong hand for a month priced below the winter. No for two groups: travelers whose day is built on long afternoons on the sand, since the light quits at 5:33 p.m., and anyone locking in non-refundable rates while the hurricane season still runs to the 30th.

If that pushes you off the month, December is the honest alternative rather than October: 2.44 inches of rain, 3.7 wet days, a sea still at 79.1°F. You pay in a 64.3°F night and in rates that start their climb as the winter season opens. Push all the way to February through April and you get South Florida’s best weather at its most expensive, both peaks in the same four weeks. Florida month by month has the full curve.

What no other month pairs is this: an ocean still in the low eighties and a rain column already down to 3.53 inches, before the winter rates notice either.

The last word

Decide one thing before you book: which you came for, the water or the afternoons. November sells the first at 81.7°F and rations the second at 5:33 p.m. The getting around, at least, is cheap. Route 150, the Miami Beach Airport Express, runs from the airport Metrorail station across the Julia Tuttle Causeway to Mid Beach for $2.25 with luggage racks on board, and a day of unlimited Metrorail and Metrobus caps at $5.65. Put the difference into a room you can walk to the sand from.

Sources & data for this guide

• November normals: high 81.3°F, low 68.3°F, 3.53 in, 4.7 days ≥0.10 in, 1.0 day ≥1.00 in · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012839, Miami International Airport · checked Sep 8, 2026
• October and December normals (85.9/74.2/7.65/9.0 and 78.2/64.3/2.44/3.7) · same NOAA NCEI station and period, not estimates · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Sea surface 81.7°F November, 84.5°F October, 79.1°F December · Open-Meteo Marine API, 2015-2024, mean of daily maxima · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Daylight 10h55, sunrise 6:37 a.m. and sunset 5:33 p.m. on Nov 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, UTC times converted to America/New_York · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Hurricane season dates, Sept 10 peak, mid-August to mid-October activity window · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Lodging taxes: 6.0% Miami-Dade transient rental tax with 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Vizcaya hours, Tuesday closure and $20/$5 admission · vizcaya.org · checked Sep 8, 2026
• PAMM free Thursday evenings and second Saturdays · pamm.org · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Metromover frequency, Metrorail, route 150 fare, $5.65 daily cap · Miami-Dade County Transit · checked Sep 8, 2026 · Metromover hours diverge between sources (5:30 a.m.-10 p.m. official, 5 a.m.-midnight elsewhere), so we quote both
• Lummus Park, South Pointe Park lot and the free trolley · City of Miami Beach · Crandon Park parking · Miami-Dade Parks · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Rate seasonality (August-October low, February-April high) is market behavior relayed by the trade, not an official statistic · Miami Beach resort fee amounts diverge sharply between sources, so we give the range · checked Sep 8, 2026
• Our cards on the table: the booking lead times marked (est.) are editorial judgment, and so are the rain-pattern description and the itinerary timings · prices and hours change, check operators when you book.