The Blue Mountains in November: Weather, Rain Days, Cold Nights and Things to Do

JAMAICA · NOVEMBER · 18.05° N

Behind Kingston, Jamaica climbs to 2,256 meters at Blue Mountain Peak, and the air up there keeps a different calendar from the beaches. UNESCO puts the Blue and John Crow Mountains at roughly a fifth of the island’s landmass, rising from 850 meters to the summit, with a forest near the top where the trees grow short and furred with moss. A November trip here means a fleece and a rain shell in the bag, and a morning on a summit ridge instead of a sun lounger.

November lands between a wet October and a cooler December, with days that still run past eleven hours of light. Rain falls on roughly two days in five at the peak, so build one spare morning into the trip and keep the summit for the clearest one.

On this page

• Blue Mountains weather in NovemberHighs of 59.1°F and 12.3 wet days on the peak
• How cold the nights getLows of 52.0°F and what to wear at dawn
• Prices, lodging tax and bookingWhat we could verify, and where a guide fits the budget
• Things to do in NovemberBlue Mountain Peak, the Elfin Forest and the Nanny Town Heritage Route
• A two-day planTwo days set around a 6:11 a.m. sunrise and a 5:30 p.m. sunset
• October or December instead?How the three months compare on rain and temperature
• Is November a good time to go?Who should go now, and who should wait for December

Every figure here comes from one place: a model grid cell centered at 18.05° N, 76.58° W, over Blue Mountain Peak at 2,256 meters (about 7,400 feet). That is the top of the range. A Kingston forecast describes the coast and will leave you underdressed on the summit trail. Guesthouses on the lower slopes, which UNESCO’s boundary takes down to 850 meters (about 2,790 feet), sit in warmer air than the peak normals below.

The Blue Mountains weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days

Open-Meteo’s ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis puts the 1991–2020 November normals for that cell at an average high of 59.1°F (15.1°C), an average low of 52.0°F (11.1°C) and 4.58 inches of precipitation. A reanalysis is a weather model rebuilt from observations and computed over a grid square. No airport or station thermometer stands behind these numbers, so read them as a modeled summit climate.

In an average November, 12.3 days record at least 0.10 inch of rain, roughly two days in every five. Only 0.4 day brings an inch or more, so a true downpour turns up in about two Novembers out of five. Most wet days therefore fall between a tenth of an inch and an inch, the kind of rain you walk through in a good shell. Before you book, check road and trail status in our after-Hurricane Melissa update.

Only 7.1°F separates the average high from the average low. Nights hardly drop and afternoons hardly climb, so the same warm layer stays on from breakfast to dinner. Pack a fleece or light insulated jacket, a waterproof shell, a warm hat, spare dry socks in a zip bag and a dry change of clothes for the evening. Our Jamaica packing list handles the beach half of the suitcase.

On November 15 the sun rises at 6:11 a.m. and sets at 5:30 p.m. Jamaica time (UTC−5), for 11 hours 19 minutes of daylight. Start any summit walk at first light and aim to be off exposed ground by 4:30 p.m. The peak has no shoreline, so for swimming plan a separate stay on the coast at Port Antonio.

How warm is the Blue Mountains in November?

A November afternoon at the summit cell averages 59.1°F, and a night 52.0°F, which puts the warmest hours at 15.1°C. Those are averages across thirty years of Novembers.

At a 6:11 a.m. start the air sits close to the 52°F low: wear the fleece and hat, with the shell zipped over both. By early afternoon, nearer the 59°F high, a long-sleeved base layer usually does, with the shell kept on top of the pack for the two-in-five rain odds. Lower down the slopes, a T-shirt may be enough by lunch.

We found no count of frost nights for the summit cell. The ERA5 normals give an average November low of 52.0°F, twenty degrees above freezing, yet an average can hide a cold clear night, so we neither promise nor rule one out. Of the three months we read, December runs coolest, with an average low of 50.6°F.

How busy is the Blue Mountains in November? Crowds and prices

We found no occupancy series and no room-rate series for the Blue Mountains, so we rank no month cheap or expensive. Island-wide seasons are laid out in our best time to visit Jamaica guide, and budgets by tier in what a Jamaica trip costs.

Our sources carry no booking lead times either, so we give no number of weeks. November is the closing month of the Atlantic hurricane season, detailed in our hurricane season guide, and a refundable room protects a mountain trip that depends on roads and weather. Plan to fly into Kingston, with routes in flights from the US and transfers in our airport transfer guide.

We could not verify a lodging tax or guest fee for mountain guesthouses, so we give no percentage. Ask your host to quote the nightly rate with every tax and fee included before you pay a deposit.

Hire a local guide if you spend extra on one thing. We found no published trail time, entrance fee or guide rate for the park, and with rain on roughly two days in five, someone who knows the route can judge each morning whether the summit is on. Agree the price in writing before you set out, and if you plan to drive the mountain roads yourself, read our Jamaica driving guide first.

Things to do in the Blue Mountains in November

November brings 4.7 fewer wet days than October at the summit cell, 12.3 against 17.0. That margin makes a two-night hiking trip with one spare morning a realistic plan.

Blue Mountain Peak, at 2,256 meters (7,402 feet), crowns the range and the UNESCO property. Above 1,800 meters the forest grows stunted, and above 2,000 meters (about 6,560 feet) it becomes the Elfin Forest: gnarled trees coated with hanging mosses, ferns and tiny orchids. The property counts 1,357 flowering plant species, 87 of them found nowhere else. East, the John Crow Mountains hold the threatened hutia, and the Nanny Town Heritage Route traces the trails and look-outs of the Windward Maroons, whose Moore Town heritage joined UNESCO’s intangible list in 2008.

The 61 species of liverwort and moss and the 11 lichens UNESCO records grow on the same branches in every month. In November the air around them averages 59.1°F in the afternoon, with rain on two days in five. Birders share the forest with threatened residents, the Jamaican Blackbird, the Yellow-billed Parrot and the Black-billed Parrot, and with Bicknell’s Thrush, a migrant. We did not verify the thrush’s arrival and departure dates, so confirm them with a birding guide before you plan around it.

We found no stable official page publishing an entrance fee, trail time or guide rate for the national park, so we cannot say what is free in November and what is not. The property sits inside the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, protected by the Natural Resources (National Park) Act of 1993 and the Forestry Act of 1996. Ask your guesthouse or guide which fees apply on the day, and carry cash for them.

The Blue Mountains in November: a two-day itinerary

Day one. Leave your guesthouse at first light, around 6:11 a.m., in fleece, hat and shell, with the air near the 52°F low. We have no published trail time for any route, so set a turnaround hour instead of a destination: head back by 1 p.m. at the latest. That leaves margin to be down before the 5:30 p.m. sunset. Shed to a base layer as the afternoon nears 59°F, keep the shell within reach, and be under a roof by dark.

Day two. Walk slower through the stunted forest band between 1,800 and 2,000 meters with a birding guide, looking for the Yellow-billed and Black-billed Parrots. If the morning opens wet (the odds run about two in five), move the summit to day two and spend day one’s leftover hours in Kingston. With a third night, add Moore Town and the Maroon story from a Port Antonio base.

The Blue Mountains in November vs October and December

At the summit cell, October runs 60.6°F by day and 53.2°F by night, with 6.73 inches of rain over 17.0 wet days. November sits at 59.1°F and 52.0°F with 4.58 inches over 12.3 days, and December at 57.6°F and 50.6°F with 3.49 inches over 9.8 days. Each step later drops the highs by 1.5°F and trims the rain, by 2.15 inches into November and another 1.09 inches into December.

Moving four weeks earlier, to October, adds 1.5°F by day and 1.2°F by night, along with 4.7 more wet days and nearly half again as much rain. Moving four weeks later, to December, removes 2.5 wet days and 1.09 inches, for nights averaging 50.6°F. A summit hiker gets the drier record in December. A cold-sensitive walker gains little from October’s extra degree and a half against its 17.0 wet days.

Is November a good time to visit the Blue Mountains?

Yes, if you come to hike and pack for it: November suits walkers comfortable at 52°F in the morning and willing to sit out a wet day. No, if the Jamaica you want is warm air and swimming, or if the itinerary gives the mountains a single day with no room for the two-in-five rain odds.

If rain is the reason for a no, pick December: 9.8 wet days and 3.49 inches at the summit cell, against November’s 12.3 and 4.58. If cold is the reason, neither neighbor helps much, since October’s highs run only 1.5°F warmer. Pair a mountain night or two with a coast base instead, using our where to stay in Jamaica guide.

November is the month when the summit’s rain has already fallen by about a third from October’s 6.73 inches while its average high still holds above 59°F.

The last word

Pack for 52°F and a wet morning, and November in the Blue Mountains turns into two nights of montane rainforest above a Caribbean capital. Book a room on the lower slopes, save the summit for the clearest dawn, and know the ridge you climb belongs to Jamaica’s first World Heritage site, inscribed by UNESCO in 2015, with a buffer zone of 28,494 hectares around it.

Sources & data for this guide

• November, October and December normals (1991–2020), rain days · Open-Meteo / ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis, grid cell 18.0465 N, 76.5788 W over Blue Mountain Peak (2,256 m) · a model reanalysis, not a station reading · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Daylight, sunrise and sunset on November 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC to Jamaica time (UTC−5) · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Inscription, area, elevations, forest zones, species counts, birds, hutia, Maroon heritage and protecting laws · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, property 1356, Blue and John Crow Mountains · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Trail times, entrance fees, guide rates · we found no stable official page publishing them · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Sea temperature, room rates, occupancy, lodging tax, frost-night counts and Bicknell’s Thrush dates · we could not verify them, so we give no figures · Feet, °C conversions and month-to-month differences are our own arithmetic.

To plan your stay

• Things to Do in the Blue Mountains: Coffee Farms, the Peak Hike, Bike Descents and Short Trails
• Blue Mountains Wildlife: The Birds, the Hutia and What Lives Only Here
• Best Time to Visit the Blue Mountains: Rainfall, Cool Nights and the Quiet Months
• The Blue Mountains in October: Weather, Rain Days, Night Temperatures and Crowds

Nearby places

• Port Antonio, Jamaica: Blue Lagoon, Frenchman's Cove and the Long Drive East
• Kingston, Jamaica: The Bob Marley Museum, Devon House and Trench Town
• Dunns River Falls: Tickets, Timing and How to Beat the Cruise Crowds