ST. AUGUSTINE · NOVEMBER · EASTERN TIME
The Atlantic off St. Augustine is still warm enough to swim in November, and the air has stopped fighting you. Normals put the afternoon at 73.2°F, the kind of temperature that turns two hours on the coquina ramparts of a Spanish fort into a pleasure rather than an endurance test, and the sea holds 72.7°F. The price of that comfort arrives at 5:30 in the afternoon, when the sun drops and the day is simply over.
The month also sits on the hinge of Florida’s calendar: the statewide dry season opens in November, and the Atlantic hurricane season closes on the 30th. Rainfall falls to 2.00 inches, just under half of October’s total. Nights are the part nobody packs for, averaging 51.3°F, and an average November records 0.8 nights at 32°F or below.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · ST. AUGUSTINE · NOVEMBER
November hands St. Augustine dry-season air at 73.2°F with the ocean still near 72.7°F, and takes back the evening: the sun is down at 5:30 p.m.
DRY SEASON OPENS · 3.9 WET DAYS · SUNSET 5:30 P.M. · HURRICANE SEASON ENDS NOV 30
Go for: 73.2°F afternoons on open ramparts, an ocean still at 72.7°F, and 2.00 inches of rain across the entire month.
Think twice before: planning long beach days: the light is gone at 5:30 p.m. and nights average 51.3°F, with about 0.8 nights at freezing.
Normals: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, station USW00013889 · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine · Fees and hours: National Park Service · full sources at the end
On this page
- St. Augustine weather in NovemberHighs of 73.2°F, lows of 51.3°F, 3.9 wet days
- Can you swim in November?The sea at 72.7°F, and the flag system
- How busy and how expensive is November?Thanksgiving week, lodging tax and booking
- Things to do in NovemberCastillo de San Marcos, Fort Matanzas, the lighthouse
- A two-day plan for short daylightTwo days built around a 5:30 p.m. sunset
- November, October or December?How the three months compare on air, rain and water
- Is November a good time to visit?Who it suits, and who should shift four weeks
Two of the numbers below deserve a word about where they come from. The temperature and rainfall normals are NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 values from station USW00013889, a real thermometer at Jacksonville International Airport and the nearest official station, not a modeled grid cell. The sea figure comes from a marine model average, and it reads the daily maximum. Anything not dated by the month sits on our St. Augustine guide or the statewide month-by-month verdict.
St. Augustine weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days
| November in numbers | Value |
|---|---|
| Average high | 73.2°F |
| Average low | 51.3°F |
| Precipitation | 2.00 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 3.9 |
| Days with 1 in or more | 0.5 |
| Nights at 32°F or below | 0.8 |
| Sea surface (mean of daily maxima) | 72.7°F |
| Daylight on November 15 | 10h 41m |
NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals put the November average high at 73.2°F and the average low at 51.3°F, with 2.00 inches of precipitation across the month. Those values are measured at station USW00013889, the Jacksonville airport gauge, so they describe an inland runway rather than a beach forty minutes of driving to the south. Read them as the shape of a typical November, not as a forecast for the Tuesday you happen to land.
Rain is rarer than the monthly inch total suggests. In an average November, 3.9 days collect 0.10 inch or more, roughly one day in eight, and only 0.5 day brings an inch or more, so a genuine soaking turns up about every other year. In daily terms that means a gray hour or two on a couple of afternoons. Keep one indoor option loose and most Novembers never make you use it.
The gap between the 73.2°F afternoon and the 51.3°F dawn runs nearly 22 degrees, so one layer will not cover a day here. A T-shirt is right at noon on the ramparts and wrong at seven in the evening with wind coming off the water. Add the 0.8 nights at or below 32°F and the packing advice writes itself: bring the warm layer you would never have packed for October, plus long sleeves for dinner.
On November 15 the sun rises at 6:49 a.m. and sets at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time, giving 10 hours 41 minutes of daylight. One plan turns on that: Castillo de San Marcos takes its last admission at 5:00 p.m. and clears the fort at 5:15 p.m., fifteen minutes before sunset. Everything outdoors has to fit before the light goes, and dinner happens after dark whatever your intentions were at breakfast.
Can you swim in St. Augustine in November? Sea temperature and what it feels like
Sea surface off St. Augustine averages 72.7°F in November in the Open-Meteo Marine record for 2015-2024. One caveat travels with that number and it matters: the average is built from daily maxima, the warmest reading of each day, so it sits a shade above a true 24-hour mean. Tables built the other way will show the same water a degree or two cooler, and neither is wrong.
Water in the low 70s under air at 73.2°F is swimmable rather than luxurious. Anyone who swims in a northern summer walks straight in. Anyone whose reference is August in Florida will stand in the shallows for a minute first. Mid-afternoon is the window, when the air has peaked and you dry off quickly afterward. A shorty wetsuit turns a fifteen-minute dip into an hour, and it is the one piece of gear that changes this month at the beach.
We could not verify November wind or swell statistics for this stretch of coast, so we give no figure for either. What we can give is the flag code: double red means the water is closed, red high hazard, yellow medium, green low hazard, and purple for dangerous marine life, flown alongside another flag. No Florida law compels a beach to fly any of them, so an empty pole is not clearance. Hurricane season still runs to November 30, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October. More on the water in our Florida safety guide.
How busy is St. Augustine in November? Crowds, lodging tax and Thanksgiving week
November opens the statewide dry season that runs through April, and it closes hurricane season on the 30th. Where the month falls on a price curve is a different question, and we answer it carefully: we found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate data for St. Augustine, so we crown no month cheap and none expensive. One fixed point remains. Thanksgiving lands in the last week of the month, the single nationwide demand spike inside it.
That splits the booking job in two. Treat the holiday week as its own problem and lock those nights first, and treat the other three weeks as ordinary ones. We verified no lead-time data, so we give no number of weeks. Flights come through Jacksonville JAX, the nearest large airport and a medium hub that boarded 3,749,791 passengers in 2024. Orlando MCO boarded 27,859,783 and carries the wider schedule at the cost of a longer drive, a trade our flights guide works through.
On the bill, St. Johns County levies a 5.0% transient rental tax, filed and paid with the 6% state sales tax. That is 11% added to a nightly rate before whatever a property charges on top, and it applies in November exactly as it does in March. Our Florida trip-cost guide puts the figure next to the rest of the budget.
The upgrade that genuinely changes this month is location, not luxury. With the sun down at 5:30 p.m., a bed inside the walkable old-town core buys back the evening, because anything requiring a drive after dark tends to get skipped. We verified no hotel names and no room rates, so we name no property and quote no figure. Our where-to-stay guide handles the geography.
Things to do in St. Augustine in November: the Castillo, Fort Matanzas and the lighthouse
November is the overlap month, and that is its whole argument. Air at 73.2°F keeps unshaded stone comfortable at noon, where October’s 80.9°F does not, and the water at 72.7°F still sits 6.7 degrees above what December leaves you. A fort in the morning and an ocean swim in the afternoon works on the same day. Four weeks later, half of that plan is off the table.
Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fortification in the continental United States, per the National Park Service, built of coquina because it was the only local stone the Spanish had. Admission is $15 for anyone 16 and up and stays valid 7 consecutive days. Under 16 is free with an adult. First admission is 9:00 a.m., last is 5:00 p.m., and everyone is out by 5:15 p.m. It opens every day of November except Thanksgiving Day.
South of town, Fort Matanzas preserves a coquina watchtower completed in 1742, and the two forts together are two of Florida’s eleven National Park Service units. The stone does not change with the calendar; your tolerance for standing on it does, and that 7.7-degree drop from October is the difference. The lighthouse, a tower dating from 1874, runs winter hours from October 1 to February 28, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., last ticket 5:30 p.m. Children under 44 inches cannot climb, and taller ones must climb under their own power.
Free in November: all of Fort Matanzas, ferry across the inlet included. The boarding pass is free too, but it comes from the Fort Matanzas Visitor Center and not the city visitor center, and every family member needs one. The ferry service operates on an October 1 to September 30 cycle, and we could not read the daily departure times at source, so arrive with slack in the morning. Under-16s enter the Castillo free with an adult, and beach below the mean high-water line is public under Florida Statutes 163.035, while dry sand above that line can be private. We could not read the lighthouse general admission price, so we quote none.
St. Augustine in November: a two-day itinerary
Day one: be at the Castillo for first admission at 9:00 a.m., when the air is still in the 50s and the walls are in low light. Spend late morning on foot in the old town as the temperature climbs toward 73.2°F. Eat indoors, then take the beach between roughly 1 and 4 p.m., the stretch when both the air and the 72.7°F water are at their warmest. Be back in town before 5:30 p.m. and let dinner start after dark.
Day two goes south: the Fort Matanzas Visitor Center first for the free boarding passes, then the ferry to the 1742 watchtower, then the lighthouse tower while the last winter ticket is still on sale at 5:30 p.m. If the sky turns, and 3.9 days in the month do bring 0.10 inch or more, reverse the order and climb the tower while the cell passes over. Only 0.5 day in an average November delivers an inch or more, so a full washout is the exception.
St. Augustine in November vs October and December
| Measure | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 80.9°F | 73.2°F | 67.5°F |
| Average low | 61.5°F | 51.3°F | 45.8°F |
| Precipitation | 4.03 in | 2.00 in | 2.78 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 5.1 | 3.9 | 4.4 |
| Sea surface | 77.9°F | 72.7°F | 66.0°F |
November’s average high sits 7.7 degrees below October and 5.7 above December, which puts it in the middle on air and first on rain: 2.00 inches is the driest of the three and just under half of October’s 4.03. The water tells the sharper story. At 72.7°F it runs 5.2 degrees cooler than October’s 77.9°F and 6.7 degrees warmer than December’s 66.0°F, and that last gap is the line between swimming and wading.
Shift back four weeks to October and you buy warmer water and warmer evenings, paying with two extra inches of rain, 5.1 wet days instead of 3.9, and the tail of the busiest hurricane stretch. Shift forward to December and you get a closed hurricane season and 67.5°F afternoons that are pleasant for walking, while the ocean drops out of the trip entirely at 66.0°F.
Is November a good time to visit St. Augustine?
Yes, for anyone whose trip is built on walking, forts and one swim. A 73.2°F afternoon, 2.00 inches of rain in the whole month and water still in the low 70s is a strong combination for that traveler. No, for anyone planning long beach days end to end: 10 hours 41 minutes of daylight and 51.3°F nights mean the towel comes off the sand by four, and evening warmth is not on offer.
If water is the point of the trip, move to October, where the sea runs 77.9°F and the low stays at 61.5°F, and accept 4.03 inches of rain and a month still inside the active hurricane stretch. If crowds and holiday weeks worry you more than temperature, December keeps 67.5°F afternoons with the hurricane season shut, and asks you to give up swimming. Traveling with kids usually pushes that call toward October.
No other month in this trio pairs sub-75 air with water above 70, and that single overlap is what November owns.
The last word
Lock the Thanksgiving nights first if you need them, put the Castillo at 9:00 a.m. on your first morning, and remember that the fort empties fifteen minutes before the sun leaves. One piece of context for the walk down to the water: the Park Service dates the founding of St. Augustine to 1565, and traces the name of the Matanzas river to the Spanish word for slaughters, after the killing of French Huguenots on that shore. The town’s title as the oldest continuously occupied city in the country is repeated everywhere, but we did not find it on any Park Service page we read, so we serve the date and leave the superlative alone.
Sources & data for this guide
- November normals: 73.2°F / 51.3°F, 2.00 in, 3.9 days at 0.10 in, 0.5 day at 1 in, 0.8 nights at 32°F · NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, station USW00013889, Jacksonville International Airport · checked Sep 23, 2026
- October and December normals used in the comparison · same NOAA NCEI series, same 1991-2020 period · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sea surface 72.7°F (and 77.9°F / 66.0°F for the neighboring months), mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Daylight 10h 41m, sunrise and sunset on November 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to Eastern time · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Castillo de San Marcos fees ($15, 7 days, under 16 free) and hours (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. admission, exit 5:15 p.m., closed Thanksgiving and Christmas) · National Park Service · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Coquina construction and the continental-United States wording · NPS Castillo de San Marcos, Stories · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Fort Matanzas free entry, free boarding pass at the fort’s own visitor center, 1742 coquina watchtower, Oct 1 to Sep 30 ferry cycle · National Park Service · checked Sep 23, 2026
- St. Johns County 5.0% transient rental tax with the 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Lighthouse winter hours, last ticket 5:30 p.m., 44-inch rule, 1874 tower · St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Hurricane season dates and the September 10 peak · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 23, 2026
- JAX (3,749,791) and MCO (27,859,783) 2024 boardings · Federal Aviation Administration, CY2024 · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Beach warning flags and public access below the mean high-water line · Florida Statutes 380.276 and 163.035 · checked Sep 23, 2026
- What we could not verify: the lighthouse general admission price, the Fort Matanzas ferry departure times, November wind and swell statistics, and any hotel name, room rate or restaurant. None of them appear above. The ‘oldest continuously occupied city’ title is not on the NPS pages we read.
To plan your stay
- Things to Do in St. Augustine: Castillo Tickets, Fort Matanzas Ferry and Lighthouse Hours
- Where to Stay in St. Augustine: Historic District, the Beach and the 5% Lodging Tax
- Airport to St. Augustine: JAX, MCO, Rental Cars and Eastern Time
- St. Augustine Know Before You Go: Castillo Fees, the Fort Matanzas Ferry Pass and Beach Rules