Honolulu in November: Weather, Rain Days, Sea Temperature and Crowds

HONOLULU · NOVEMBER · 21.3° N

November takes about three degrees off October in Honolulu and adds three quarters of an inch of rain. The airport normals put the month at 84.1°F by day and 71.8°F before dawn, with 2.25 inches of precipitation falling on a handful of days. None of that reads as winter. What does change is the light: on November 15 the sun sets at 5:50 p.m., and the long beach evening stops being part of the plan.

The month runs on two calendars. Through the first three weeks the mainland is at work and at school. The last week is a national travel week in the United States, and seats and rooms into Honolulu go on that calendar rather than on any forecast. Where a trip lands inside those four weeks changes more than the weather does.

On this page

• Average highs, lows and rain days in NovemberThe NOAA normals, 84.1°F and 2.9 wet days
• Can you swim in November?Sea at 79.0°F
• How busy Honolulu gets in NovemberCrowds, booking and the tax line
• Things to do in Honolulu in NovemberWaikiki, Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Ala Moana
• A two-day plan built around a 5:50 p.m. sunsetThe two-day itinerary
• November vs October and DecemberHow the three months compare
• Is November a good time to visit Honolulu?The verdict, and the month to switch to

Every figure here comes from one thermometer and one rain gauge, both at Honolulu International Airport on the leeward south shore of Oahu. That caveat carries weight on this island: the windward side and the mountains behind the city take several times the rain the airport records, and the gauge never sees it. Read the normals below as the coastal, Waikiki-facing version of November.

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

The air numbers are NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information monthly normals for 1991-2020, station USW00022521. That is a real thermometer on the airfield rather than a grid cell from a reanalysis model, which matters when two weather sites hand you two different lows for the same night. November’s normal high is 84.1°F, its normal low 71.8°F, and its normal precipitation total 2.25 inches.

Of those thirty days, 2.9 record at least 0.10 inch of rain and 0.6 of a day records an inch or more. Translated: measurable rain about one day in ten, and a genuine soaking in roughly three Novembers out of five. The rest of the 2.25 inches arrives as the short passing shower that Waikiki sits through without anyone folding a towel.

Between the 84.1°F afternoon and the 71.8°F dawn sit 12.3 degrees, a thin spread to pack for. A T-shirt covers the day, one light layer covers the trade-wind evening on a lanai or on a boat, and nothing in the bag needs to be warm. Bring a packable rain shell instead of an umbrella, which loses arguments with trade winds on all 2.9 of those wet days.

On November 15 the sun rises at 6:41 a.m. and sets at 5:50 p.m., which gives 11 hours and 9 minutes of daylight. Sunset arrives before most people sit down to dinner, so a snorkel trip or a hike booked for late afternoon runs out of light fast. Start at the other end: at 6:41 a.m. the air sits far closer to the 71.8°F overnight low than to the afternoon normal, and that is the comfortable hour for anything uphill.

Can you swim in Honolulu in November? Sea temperature at 79.0°F

The Open-Meteo marine model puts the sea surface off Honolulu at 79.0°F in November, averaged over 2015 to 2024. The reserve attached to that number belongs in the answer: it is the mean of daily maxima, the warmest reading of each day, so it runs a shade above a true 24-hour average. Take 79°F as the afternoon water and expect the first swim after sunrise to read a little under it.

At 79°F nobody stands in the shallows negotiating with the water. The difference that temperature buys is duration rather than the first step: an hour face-down over a reef without a wetsuit stays comfortable, small children last as long as their parents allow, and the towel is wanted at the end of a long snorkel rather than after fifteen minutes. Waikiki’s afternoon is the warmest version of that figure, and a dawn swim the coolest.

No wave or wind series for November was available for this coast, so nothing here ranks the month’s surf or its trade winds. Surf on Oahu varies by shore and by season, and a marine forecast read the week you travel answers that question better than any monthly average could. The 2.25 inches of rain and the 2.9 measurable days are the conditions that were verified, and neither says anything about the swell at Waikiki on your Tuesday.

How busy is Honolulu in November? Crowds, booking lead time and Hawaii hotel tax

Two Novembers exist in Honolulu. The first three weeks fall outside every U.S. school break, and Waikiki through them runs at a pace residents recognize. Then the holiday week closes the month and the island takes on family travel booked since summer. No occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Honolulu were available, and without one, calling any month the cheapest of the year would be a guess.

Booking behaves the same way, at two speeds. The final week competes with every other holiday trip in the country for the same seats, and a flight bought late for those dates is bought from what is left. The first three weeks are where a flexible date pays: moving a departure from November 24 to November 12 changes the competition for a seat far more than it changes the conditions, since the normals above cover all four weeks alike.

Hawaii bills lodging taxes on top of the room rate, and the first price a booking site shows is rarely the price on the final invoice. We could not verify the current combined rate for Honolulu, so we give no percentage and none should be borrowed from another state. Read the tax line in the booking summary before you compare two hotels, because the gap between two headline rates can close there.

One upgrade changes this month specifically: a room with a west-facing lanai. With the sun gone at 5:50 p.m. and the overnight low at 71.8°F, the end of the afternoon becomes the best hour of the day to be outdoors, and a balcony turns it into something instead of a walk back. A rental car comes second. With 11 hours and 9 minutes of daylight, a car waiting in the garage at 6:30 a.m. buys back the part of the day the sunset takes away.

Things to do in Honolulu in November

November is the overlap: water still at 79.0°F, air at 84.1°F, and a rain total that is climbing without having arrived. A snorkel, a crater hike and a full beach day fit into one day at those figures. December, at 81.8°F and 3.2 measurable rain days, makes the same day slightly tighter, and October’s 86.9°F afternoon makes the uphill part of it harder work.

Waikiki Beach is the default, and in November it earns the default: the sea reads 79.0°F in the afternoon and the sand is a short walk from most rooms in the city. Diamond Head’s crater trail is the standard morning, started near the 6:41 a.m. sunrise. Hanauma Bay is the snorkeling one, Ala Moana Beach Park the calm-water one for small children. Fees, hours and reservation rules at all four were not verified, so check each operator’s own page before you build a morning around it.

The sea at these beaches barely moves across the three months; the air does the moving. From October to December the afternoon normal falls 5.1 degrees, 86.9°F to 81.8°F, while the marine model takes the water from 80.7°F to 78.1°F. That difference is the season in one line: the same reef and the same sand, under an afternoon that no longer punishes a midday climb. November sits in the middle of both slides, at 84.1°F and 79.0°F.

Free here does not depend on the month. The sand at Waikiki and at Ala Moana costs nothing, and neither does the 5:50 p.m. sunset over the water. What November adds is the hour: the sun goes down early enough to watch before dinner rather than after it. No free-admission day and no month-specific free event for November was verified, so none is listed.

Honolulu in November: a two-day itinerary

Day one runs on the clock. Up for the 6:41 a.m. sunrise and straight up Diamond Head while the air is near 71.8°F, down by nine, breakfast afterward. Waikiki from ten to two, when the water is closest to its 79.0°F afternoon reading. Shade or an indoor hour through the hottest stretch, then back to the sand by four. Be somewhere facing west by half past five, because the sun is gone at 5:50. Dinner is a post-sunset event all month.

Day two belongs to the water: snorkeling in the morning, the windward side by car after lunch, back before the light goes at 5:50. If the sky turns, remember which gauge the numbers came from. The 2.25-inch total is the airport’s, on the leeward shore, and the windward side takes several times that. A wet morning at Waikiki and a wet morning in the mountains are not the same forecast, and with 2.9 measurable rain days in a whole month, the odds favor a shower that ends inside a lunch.

Honolulu in November vs October and December

October is the warmest and driest of the three, 86.9°F by day on 1.51 inches of rain. November adds 0.74 inch and takes 2.8 degrees off the afternoon. December removes another 2.3 degrees and spreads a nearly identical 2.18 inches across 3.2 wet days instead of 2.9. The water steps down with the air, 80.7 to 79.0 to 78.1 on the marine model, and all three read as swimmable.

Moving four weeks either way costs something you can measure. Go back to October and you buy 2.8 degrees of afternoon air, 1.7 degrees of water and three quarters of an inch less rain. Go forward to December and you hand those back, pick up three more tenths of a wet day, and land inside the holiday calendar, which competes for rooms in a way no temperature does. For the twelve-month view, the best-time guide holds the rest.

Is November a good time to visit Honolulu?

Yes, for a trip built around water and daylight. A 79.0°F sea, 84.1°F afternoons and 2.9 measurable rain days out of thirty is a strong hand, and the first three weeks carry no national holiday. No, for anyone whose vacation lives in the evening: with the sun down at 5:50 p.m. on the 15th, the outdoor day ends earlier than most first-time visitors have planned for.

If that points you away, move to October rather than December. October delivers 86.9°F, 1.51 inches of rain and an 80.7°F sea, the warmest and driest of the three by the figures held here. December’s compensation runs the other way, a cooler 81.8°F that suits hiking, with 3.2 wet days and the holiday weeks stacked on top of the flights.

Of the three, November is the one month that gives you 79°F water without October’s 86.9°F afternoons, which is the trade a crater trail and a full beach day both prefer.

The last word

Book the first three weeks and leave the fourth to holiday travel. That one choice does more for a Honolulu November than any hotel decision, and it costs nothing in weather, because the monthly normals cover all four weeks alike. Then carry the shell instead of the umbrella: November’s 2.25 inches fall across 2.9 measurable days, about 0.78 inch per wet day, against December’s 0.68. The rain comes in fewer, heavier visits, and the 84.1°F afternoon returns behind it.

Sources & data for this guide

• November air normals (high 84.1°F, low 71.8°F, 2.25 in, 2.9 days at 0.10 in, 0.6 day at 1 in) · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00022521, Honolulu International Airport · checked Sep 15, 2026
• October (86.9°F / 73.9°F / 1.51 in / 2.6 days) and December (81.8°F / 69.2°F / 2.18 in / 3.2 days) · same NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 series, same station · checked Sep 15, 2026
• Sea surface 79.0°F in November, 80.7°F in October, 78.1°F in December, taken as the mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 15, 2026
• Sunrise 6:41 a.m., sunset 5:50 p.m. and 11 h 09 min of daylight on November 15, converted from UTC to Hawaii Standard Time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 15, 2026
• Editorial reserve: the airport gauge sits on the leeward south shore and does not record the windward side’s rain. No occupancy, room-rate, lodging-tax or swell series was available for Honolulu, so no month is ranked by price and no tax rate is quoted.
• Fees, opening hours and reservation rules at Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Waikiki and Ala Moana Beach Park were not verified · check each operator before you go.