CLEARWATER · FLORIDA · NOVEMBER
November is the month Clearwater’s air drops and the Gulf refuses to follow at the same speed. The NOAA normal high for the month is 77.2°F, about seven degrees under October, while the sea off the beach still averages 73.5°F. Overnight the normal low is 60.9°F, which is the first real evening chill of the Florida calendar and the reason a sweatshirt stops being decoration.
The trade is light. Rainfall for the month averages 1.64 inches across 2.5 wet days, the driest of the three months around it, but November 15 carries only 10 hours 48 minutes of daylight and the sun is down at 5:39 pm. You get a comfortable beach day and roughly two fewer usable hours than in October.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · CLEARWATER
November gives you the driest month of Clearwater’s fall, 77.2°F afternoons and a Gulf still near 73.5°F, in exchange for a beach day that ends at 5:39 pm.
NOAA 1991-2020 NORMALS · GULF 73.5°F · 12% LODGING TAX · SUNSET 5:39 PM ON NOV 15
Go for: swimming without October’s 84.2°F afternoons, the 3.4 miles of trail at Honeymoon Island, and four miles of beach you can actually drive to.
Think twice before: planning a long afternoon on the water: daylight runs 10 hours 48 minutes on November 15 and the light is gone by 5:39 pm.
Climate: NOAA NCEI station USW00012873 · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine · Parks: Florida DEP 2024 inventory · full sources at the end
On this page
- Clearwater weather in November77.2°F highs, 1.64 inches of rain
- Can you swim in November?The Gulf at 73.5°F
- Crowds, booking and the lodging taxWhat the 12% covers
- Things to do in NovemberHoneymoon Island, Caladesi, Anclote Key
- A two-day plan around a 5:39 pm sunsetThe itinerary, hour by hour
- November vs October and DecemberHow the three months compare
- Is November a good time to visit Clearwater?The verdict, for and against
November opens the dry half of the Florida year, the November-to-April window described in the state’s month-by-month verdict. Questions that carry no date stay where they belong: where to sleep, what a week costs and how you move around answer the same way in March as they do here.
Clearwater weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | November normal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 77.2°F |
| Average low | 60.9°F |
| Total precipitation | 1.64 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 2.5 |
| Days with 1 in or more | 0.4 |
| Daylight on Nov 15 | 10h 48m |
The 1991-2020 normals give November an average high of 77.2°F, an average low of 60.9°F and 1.64 inches of precipitation. They come from one real thermometer rather than a reanalysis grid cell: NOAA station USW00012873, St. Petersburg International Airport. That gauge sits between St. Petersburg and Clearwater, on the bay side rather than the Gulf, so every figure here belongs to an airfield the sea breeze reaches late. The gap falls on the afternoon maximum and barely touches the overnight low.
Of those 30 days, 2.5 record at least 0.10 inch of rain and 0.4 record an inch or more. In plain terms, measurable rain lands about one day in twelve, and a genuine soaking turns up in roughly two Novembers out of five. The month’s 1.64 inches arrive in a couple of concentrated episodes, not in the daily afternoon build that runs through the wet season.
The spread between 77.2°F and 60.9°F is 16.3 degrees, and it decides the bag more than the average does. Mornings before eight and everything after sunset want long sleeves, the middle of the day wants nothing but sunscreen. A wet swimsuit at 61°F stops being fun quickly, so a dry layer for the walk back matters more in November than in any month since March.
Daylight on November 15 runs 10 hours 48 minutes, sunrise at 6:52 am and sunset at 5:39 pm local time. The practical cutoff comes earlier: by about 4:30 the Gulf-side light goes flat and the air starts its slide toward that 60.9°F low. Dinner in Clearwater in November happens after dark, whatever time you sit down.
Can you swim in Clearwater in November? Sea temperature and what it feels like
Sea surface off Clearwater averages 73.5°F in November, taken from the Open-Meteo Marine API as the mean of daily maxima over 2015-2024. That distinction is worth holding onto: it is the warmest reading of each day averaged out, a shade above a full 24-hour mean, so an 8 am entry sits under the figure and a 2 pm entry sits at it or just above.
At 73.5°F the water is within four degrees of the month’s average air temperature, and that closeness is the whole appeal. The first thirty seconds read cool, then stop registering, and an hour in the Gulf is ordinary for an adult swimmer. Children and lean swimmers chill faster and want a rash guard. October’s 79.0°F is bathwater by comparison, but October also comes with 84.2°F afternoons on the sand.
On wind and swell we have nothing specific to Clearwater in our sources, and no number is invented here to fill the hole. What the state does count is the shape of the swimming: Honeymoon Island State Park carries one designated swimming area along its four miles of beach, which is where a Gulf chop matters least and where the lifeguarded logic of the park is concentrated.
How busy is Clearwater in November? Crowds, booking and the 12% lodging tax
November is the first month of Florida’s dry season, the half of the year the whole state sells hardest. We hold no monthly occupancy series and no monthly room-rate table for Pinellas County, so you will get no cheapest-month claim from us in either direction. What is certain is the calendar position: warm, dry and inside the window the state guide names, which is not a quiet corner of the year.
Without a rate series, no number of weeks-ahead comes from this desk either. The documented pressure is on the arrival side and on the parking lots. Clearwater’s own airport, PIE, boarded 1,228,048 passengers in calendar year 2024 and is classed a small hub by the FAA, so the nonstop map is narrow and worth checking early against the Florida flights guide. Caladesi Island has no parking at all, so the boat decides your day there.
The tax line is fixed and public. Pinellas County levies a 6.0% transient rental tax on every night booked, collected alongside the 6% state sales tax, so 12% lands on the nightly rate you were quoted. A resort fee is separate, set by the property itself, and is not a tax. A $200 room in Clearwater is $224 before that fee, not after.
One upgrade genuinely changes November, and it is the distance between your bed and the sand. With the light gone at 5:39 pm, a room you can walk from gives you the beach twice in one day, before breakfast and again after lunch. A room that needs a car and a parking space gives you one shot at it, and November’s afternoon is too short to spend in traffic.
Things to do in Clearwater in November: Honeymoon Island, Caladesi and Anclote Key
November is the month when the beach and the trail fit in the same day. At 77.2°F, walking several miles of exposed sand and scrub is pleasant rather than punishing, and the Gulf at 73.5°F is still swimmable when you finish. October offers the warmer water and 84.2°F air that makes midday hiking a chore. December keeps the walking and takes the swimming away.
Honeymoon Island State Park is the one you drive to: the state’s 2024 inventory counts 2,021 parking spaces, the largest of any Florida state park, plus 4 miles of beach, one designated swimming area, 1,671 feet of boardwalk and 3.4 miles of hiking trail. Caladesi Island holds 3 miles of beach, 2.5 miles of trail, one canoe, kayak and tube launch, and zero parking spaces, reached by ferry or your own boat. Anclote Key Preserve adds 6.7 miles of beach and 1,408 feet of boardwalk, also with no parking counted.
What November moves is the air, not the water. Between October and November the normal high falls 7.0 degrees while the Gulf gives up 5.5, and into December the air loses another 4.4 while the sea drops a full 8.0. That lag is the season: in November the water is closer to October’s than the air is, which is why the swimming outlasts the heat.
On park entrance fees and opening hours, our sources came up empty: the operator pages either refused a machine read or rendered only in a browser, so no amount and no hour appears here. Check the park directly before you drive. What stays countable is the walking, 3.4 miles of trail at Honeymoon Island, 2.5 at Caladesi, and 3,079 feet of boardwalk between Honeymoon Island and Anclote Key.
Clearwater in November: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs front-loaded, because sunrise is 6:52 am and the light dies at 5:39 pm. Reach Honeymoon Island by 8 and take the 3.4 miles of trail while the air still sits near that 60.9°F low. Swim between 11 and 2, when the Gulf is closest to its 73.5°F daily maximum. Eat off the beach at 2, then take the Caladesi ferry for the afternoon on its 3 miles of sand, confirming the timetable with the operator first.
Day two belongs to Clearwater Beach itself in the morning and the 1,671 feet of Honeymoon Island boardwalk at golden hour, around 4:30. If the sky turns, the odds are with you: only 0.4 day a month delivers an inch or more, and the usual November system passes in hours rather than settling in. Move the beach block to the afternoon and give the morning to the museums across the bay in St. Petersburg, covered in our Florida things-to-do guide.
Clearwater in November vs October and December
| Measure | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 84.2°F | 77.2°F | 72.8°F |
| Average low | 69.7°F | 60.9°F | 56.0°F |
| Precipitation | 2.49 in | 1.64 in | 2.94 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.4 | 2.5 | 3.5 |
| Sea surface (daily maxima) | 79.0°F | 73.5°F | 65.5°F |
Across the three months, November is the dry one on both counts: 1.64 inches against 2.49 in October and 2.94 in December, and 2.5 wet days against 3.4 and 3.5. The air comes down in steps of 7.0 then 4.4 degrees. The Gulf is the opposite shape, giving up 5.5 degrees into November and then 8.0 into December, which is the drop that ends swimming for most visitors at 65.5°F.
Shift four weeks earlier and you buy back 5.5 degrees of sea and 7.0 of air, paying in rain days and in a hurricane season that runs to November 30. Shift four weeks later and you keep the walking, add 1.30 inches of rain, and swap a swimmable Gulf for a cold one. Our October page and December page carry each month in full.
Is November a good time to visit Clearwater?
Yes for anyone who wants to swim and walk on the same day, and for anyone who finds 84-degree sand tiring. A 77.2°F afternoon, a 73.5°F Gulf and 2.5 wet days is close to the best trade Clearwater offers. No for a family that treats the beach as an all-day base with a late dinner on the sand, because November hands back only 10 hours 48 minutes of daylight and takes the evening warmth with it.
If the swimming is the entire point and the heat is welcome, October is the month to take instead: 79.0°F water and 84.2°F afternoons, at the cost of 3.4 wet days and the last four weeks of hurricane season. If the walking is the point and the water is optional, December’s 72.8°F afternoons work just as well, with a Gulf at 65.5°F that most visitors will look at rather than enter.
No other month puts a swimmable Gulf and the year’s lowest rainfall on the same page: 73.5°F water with 1.64 inches of rain exists in November and nowhere else in the Clearwater calendar around it.
The last word
Book the bed you can walk to the sand from and let the 5:39 pm sunset organize the rest. Then pick your island by how you intend to arrive, because that is the real fork here: 2,021 parking spaces on Honeymoon Island against a Caladesi where the state counts exactly one canoe, kayak and tube launch and not a single parking space. One of those beaches absorbs a November Saturday. The other decides who gets on.
Sources & data for this guide
- November normals (77.2°F / 60.9°F, 1.64 in) and rain-day counts · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012873, St. Petersburg International Airport · checked Sep 12, 2026
- Station location caveat (bay side, between St. Petersburg and Clearwater) · station identity verified by name through the NCEI Search service · checked Sep 12, 2026
- Sea surface 73.5°F, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 12, 2026
- Daylight 10h 48m, sunrise 6:52 am and sunset 5:39 pm on Nov 15, converted to local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 12, 2026
- October and December normals and sea figures · same NOAA station and period for air, Open-Meteo Marine 2015-2024 for sea · checked Sep 12, 2026
- Park counts (2,021 spaces, 4 and 3 and 6.7 miles of beach, boardwalk and trail mileage) · Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 12, 2026
- 6.0% Pinellas transient rental tax plus 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT, revision 03/25 · checked Sep 12, 2026
- PIE boardings, 1,228,048 in CY2024, small hub · Federal Aviation Administration passenger boardings · checked Sep 12, 2026
- Editorial admission: we could not read any transit fare, park entrance fee or opening hour for Clearwater. The operator pages returned errors or rendered only in a browser on Sep 11, 2026, so none is quoted here. Confirm ferry times and park fees with the operator before you drive.