Tampa in November: Weather, Sea Temperature, Hotel Tax and a Two-Day Plan

FLORIDA · TAMPA · NOVEMBER

November takes Tampa’s average high down to 78.9°F from October’s 85.6°F, and the rainfall with it: 1.40 inches for the month, against 2.34. Those are NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals for the airport station, and they describe exactly the change people book this month for. What they do not describe is the light. On November 15 the sun sets at 5:38 p.m. local time, so the afternoon that ran until seven in June now runs out before dinner.

The trade sits in the water. Off Tampa the sea surface averages 74.2°F in November against 79.7°F in October, five and a half degrees you notice in the first ten seconds. And the Atlantic hurricane season stays open through November 30, even though NOAA puts the peak on September 10 and most of the activity between mid-August and mid-October. November is inside the window, at its quiet end.

On this page

• Tampa weather in November78.9°F high, 60.7°F low, 1.40 inches
• Can you swim in Tampa in November?A Gulf at 74.2°F, and what that is like
• Hotel tax and how busy the month runsThe 6% county tax, and the price data we could not read
• Things to do in Tampa in NovemberYbor City, the river parks, Weeki Wachee
• A two-day itinerary for NovemberTwo days built around a 5:38 p.m. sunset
• November against October and DecemberThe three months side by side
• Is November a good month to go?The verdict, and the month to take instead

Every air figure here comes from one thermometer rather than a grid cell: NOAA station USW00012842, listed as TAMPA INTL AP, which sits inland on the bay side and not on any beach. Sea temperature comes from somewhere else entirely, a marine model averaged over 2015-2024. The two are not interchangeable, and the difference between an airport gauge and a sand-level reading at four in the afternoon is real.

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

NOAA NCEI’s monthly normals for 1991-2020 give Tampa an average November high of 78.9°F, an average low of 60.7°F and 1.40 inches of precipitation. Set against October’s 85.6°F and 2.34 inches at the same gauge, the month is nearly seven degrees cooler and holds a third less rain. These are station values from the airport, not a bay-wide average, and a breezy beach afternoon on the Gulf side will not match them to the decimal.

Wet days are the number worth translating. Only 2.3 days in an average November record at least a tenth of an inch, which is measurable rain roughly one day in thirteen. A real soaking is rarer still: 0.4 day per November reaches an inch or more, about two such days every five years. A Tampa rain day this month usually means an hour under a roof, not a canceled plan.

Between the 78.9°F high and the 60.7°F low sits 18.2 degrees, and both happen within the same twenty-four hours. Dawn near the low means a sweater on a 7 a.m. trailhead; two in the afternoon means the sweater is dead weight in a daypack. Anyone on the water after sunset wants long sleeves, which is the one layer most people leave in the hotel room.

Daylight on November 15 runs 10 hours 48 minutes: sunrise at 6:50 a.m., sunset at 5:38 p.m., clocks on Eastern Standard Time after the November change. That is close to two hours less usable evening than a Florida summer day. Anything with a drive at the far end of it needs to begin before nine, not after lunch.

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

The sea surface off Tampa averages 74.2°F in November in the Open-Meteo marine record for 2015-2024. One caveat rides along with that number: it is a mean of daily maxima, the warmest reading of each day, so it sits a shade above what a 24-hour mean would give. It is also a different instrument from the air normals above, so the two should not be stacked as though they came from the same source.

At 74°F the Gulf is swimmable without being comfortable for long. Adults get a few laps before the shoulders start complaining, children stay in until somebody makes them come out, and with the air at 78.9°F the walk back to the towel is the warming part of the exercise. December’s average of 66.7°F shows which direction the curve runs, so the last week of the month is the chillier end of it.

Wind and wave height are a genuine gap in our data: the marine series used here carries surface temperature and nothing on swell, and no readable November record for either turned up. What the calendar does carry is the hurricane season, open through November 30, with the NOAA peak back on September 10 and most activity between mid-August and mid-October. Watch the tropics before you fly, then stop worrying about it.

How busy is Tampa in November? Crowds, prices and the Hillsborough hotel tax

November straddles two dated things: a hurricane season that closes on the 30th, and the winter arrivals that build after it. A price curve is not something we can give you. No monthly occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Tampa could be read from the operators, so no month gets crowned the cheapest or the dearest anywhere on this site’s Tampa pages, this one included.

Which means no lead time is prescribed here either, because nothing in the data supports one. What we would do is book refundable while the season still runs, and confirm the last week first. Flights are not the pinch point: TPA boarded 12,075,591 passengers in calendar year 2024, a volume the FAA classes as a large hub, with the route map that implies. See the Florida flights guide for how that plays against MCO and RSW.

On the bill, the fixed part is the tax. Hillsborough County levies a 6.0% transient rental tax on short stays, filed and paid alongside Florida’s 6% state sales tax, per the Department of Revenue’s DR-15TDT form. Twelve percent on top of the quoted rate is the arithmetic, and most booking screens hold it back until the last one. Across four nights that is roughly half of a fifth night.

The spend that actually changes the month is the car. Tampa’s November is built from places measured in parking spaces rather than transit stops: 350 at Hillsborough River State Park, 109 at Little Manatee River, 50 at Alafia River. We could not read a single bus or rail fare for the area, since the operators’ fare pages returned errors or rendered only in a browser, so no amount is quoted here. Getting around Florida and the trip-cost guide carry the rest.

Things to do in Tampa in November: Ybor City, the river parks and Weeki Wachee

What November hands back is the middle of the day. At an average high of 78.9°F, an 8.4-mile trail is an ordinary morning’s walk; in October, at 85.6°F with 2.34 inches of rain behind it, the same trail becomes a dawn errand and a retreat. Wet days drop from 4.4 to 2.3 at the same time, so a two-park weekend stops needing a backup plan for both halves.

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection counts what the state owns, and those counts are firm even where fees are not. Hillsborough River State Park: 350 parking spaces, three launches for canoes, kayaks and tubes, 5 miles of hiking trail. Little Manatee River State Park: 109 spaces, one launch, 8.4 miles of trail. Alafia River State Park: 50 spaces, one launch, 1.2 miles. In town, Ybor City Museum State Park carries 311 feet of boardwalk. Entrance fees and opening hours were not readable, so none are quoted: check at the gate.

Spring water holds its temperature all year. The air over it does not, and that gap is what makes the season. Weeki Wachee Springs State Park counts 255 parking spaces and one designated swimming area, Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs 197 spaces, Crystal River Preserve 77. In August those springs are relief from the heat; in November, with dawns near 60.7°F, the first hour in the water asks more of you than the walk back to the lot. The manatee side of the same rivers has its own guide.

No free-admission date for November turned up for Tampa’s parks or museums, so none is claimed here. What costs nothing is the daylight you can use without hiding from it: 10 hours 48 minutes on the 15th, most of it under 80°F, along a shoreline that charges for parking and nothing else.

Tampa in November: a two-day itinerary

Sunrise at 6:50 a.m. makes a 7:30 start at Hillsborough River State Park reasonable rather than heroic. With 350 spaces, the lot is not the problem, and one of the three launches gets you on the water well before the air reaches its 78.9°F average. Five miles of trail there fill the rest of the morning. Drive back for a late lunch, give the afternoon to Ybor City and the museum park’s 311 feet of boardwalk, and be facing west by 5:38 p.m.

Day two runs south to Little Manatee River State Park, 8.4 miles of trail served by 109 spaces, then west to the Gulf for a swim the 74.2°F average keeps short rather than impossible. If the sky turns, the odds say an hour: 2.3 days a month record a tenth of an inch, and inch-plus days average 0.4. Trade the trail for the drive north to Weeki Wachee, where spring water holds its temperature whatever the clouds do.

Tampa in November vs October and December

November’s 78.9°F high sits 6.7 degrees under October and 5.0 degrees over December. Rain is where the month separates itself: 1.40 inches against 2.34 and 2.56, with 2.3 wet days against 4.4 and 3.6. The Gulf runs the other way. At 74.2°F it follows October’s 79.7 and precedes December’s 66.7, a 7.5-degree fall inside four weeks, and all three sea values come from the marine model rather than the NOAA gauge.

Move four weeks earlier and you buy back five and a half degrees of water, then pay for it with 85.6°F afternoons and nearly twice the wet days: October in full. Move four weeks later and the days hold at 73.9°F, the nights drop to 55.9, rain climbs to 2.56 inches and the swimming is finished at 66.7: December in full.

Is November a good time to visit Tampa?

For walkers, paddlers and anyone who plans to be outdoors between ten and four, yes, straightforwardly: 78.9°F days and 1.40 inches of rain are the combination October never offers. For a family whose entire trip is the beach, it is thinner. A 74.2°F Gulf on a 60.7°F morning produces shorter sessions than the brochure photograph suggests, and the evening ends at 5:38 p.m.

If swimming is the point, October is the month to take, with the sea at 79.7°F and the understanding that 4.4 wet days and the hurricane peak come attached. If the point is cool trail miles and you would not get in the water anyway, December’s 73.9°F days do the job, though its 2.56 inches of rain are the most of the three. The statewide calendar sets these against the rest of Florida.

Of these three months, only November pairs a sea above 70°F with a month that stays under an inch and a half of rain.

The last word

If a ship is part of the plan, the shape of the trip is already decided: Port Tampa Bay is a homeport rather than a port of call, with eight vessels from five cruise lines sailing out of it, so Tampa becomes the night before and the night after instead of a day ashore. For everyone else the call is narrower than it looks. Take November if the walking matters more than the swimming, and put the trail day first, because the sun is gone by 5:38 p.m.

Sources & data for this guide

• November normals, 78.9°F high, 60.7°F low, 1.40 in, plus the 2.3 and 0.4 wet-day counts · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012842, Tampa International Airport · checked Sep 12, 2026
• October and December normals used in the comparison table · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 series, same station · checked Sep 12, 2026
• Sea surface 74.2°F, and the October and December values, as means of daily maxima · Open-Meteo Marine API, 2015-2024 average · checked Sep 12, 2026
• Daylight of 10 h 48 min, sunrise 6:50 a.m. and sunset 5:38 p.m. on November 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to America/New_York · checked Sep 12, 2026
• Hurricane season June 1 to November 30 and the September 10 peak · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 12, 2026
• Hillsborough County 6.0% transient rental tax, filed with the 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 12, 2026
• Parking spaces, launches, trail miles and the 311 feet of boardwalk · Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 12, 2026
• TPA boardings of 12,075,591 in calendar year 2024 and the large-hub class · Federal Aviation Administration · checked Sep 12, 2026
• Homeport status, eight vessels from five cruise lines · Port Tampa Bay · checked Sep 12, 2026
• What we could not read, and did not estimate: no bus or rail fare for Tampa, no park entrance fee, no opening hour, and no monthly hotel-rate or occupancy series. Operator pages returned errors or rendered only in a browser on Sep 11, 2026.