The South Coast in November: Weather, Sea Temperature and Rain Days in Jamaica

JAMAICA · SOUTH COAST · NOVEMBER

November on Jamaica’s South Coast averages 85.2°F by day and 75.8°F at night, and the month’s entire rain budget is 2.04 inches, spread across 5.2 measurable days. Four weeks earlier, October pours 4.33 inches over 12.0 days. The sea barely notices the handover: 86.0°F in November against 87.8°F in October, a difference of 1.8°F. That is the trade a November date makes, warm water kept, half the rain dropped.

The undated questions belong elsewhere. Where to sleep, whether to rent a car and how flights from the US price out are handled in the accommodation guide, driving in Jamaica and the flights guide, and the twelve-month ranking sits in the best-time verdict. November changes three things: the rain total, the water temperature and the hour of sunset.

On this page

• November highs, lows and rain days85.2°F highs, 5.2 wet days, 2.04 inches
• Sea temperature in November86.0°F, and what a mean of daily maxima means
• Crowds, booking windows and pricesWhere November sits between storm season and the holiday weeks
• Things to do on the South Coast in NovemberTreasure Beach, Black River, YS Falls, Floyd’s Pelican Bar
• A two-day South Coast itineraryTwo days timed to a 6:15 a.m. sunrise
• November vs October and DecemberHow the three months compare on rain and water
• Is November a good month to go?Who should book November and who should wait

A word on scope before the figures. The normals below come from a model grid cell at 17.8767° N, 77.7588° W, which sits over Treasure Beach in Saint Elizabeth. Saint Elizabeth is the driest parish in Jamaica, and that dryness is exactly what separates this coast from the north shore, so do not carry these numbers over to Ocho Rios or Port Antonio.

South Coast weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days

Open-Meteo’s ERA5 reanalysis puts the 1991-2020 November average high at 85.2°F, the average low at 75.8°F and the month’s precipitation at 2.04 inches. That is a model output for a cell of grid, not an airport station reading, and the difference is worth knowing before you plan around a tenth of a degree: a reanalysis blends a whole cell into one number, where a thermometer in Black River would report one spot.

5.2 days in an average November record at least 0.10 inch, roughly one day in six. Only 0.1 day reaches a full inch, so a November that delivers a genuine soaking is closer to a one-in-ten year than a weekly event. Nothing in that average says when the wet days fall, so put the boat morning early in your stay and keep the back half of the trip as the repeat slot.

Between 85.2°F and 75.8°F there are 9.4 degrees, a small daily swing by mainland standards. Pack for warm nights rather than cool ones: one long-sleeve layer for a boat ride back at dusk and for restaurant air conditioning covers it, plus the rain shell those 5.2 days argue for. Our packing list handles the rest of the bag.

On November 15 the sun rises at 6:15 a.m. and sets at 5:35 p.m. local time, converted from the 11:15 and 22:35 UTC we read, Jamaica running five hours behind UTC. That yields 11 hours 20 minutes of daylight. The 5:35 sunset is the real constraint on a day trip, because a plan that finishes at Black River around five leaves you on the coast road in the dark.

Can you swim on the South Coast in November? Sea temperature and wind

Sea surface off the South Coast averages 86.0°F in November, from the Open-Meteo Marine API over 2015-2024. Read the small print with the figure: it is the mean of daily maxima, so it sits a shade above a true 24-hour average, and a 7 a.m. swim will run marginally cooler than 86.0 suggests. Other tables that publish 24-hour means will therefore show this coast a little cooler, and both numbers are describing the same water.

In practice that is more than ten degrees above the month’s average night air of 75.8°F. Nobody is buying a wetsuit. An hour of snorkeling costs nothing in body heat, children come out because they are bored rather than cold, and the only shock of the day is stepping from the water into the breeze at dusk.

We found no wind or wave series for this stretch of coast in November, so we give no figures for either, and we will not guess at swell. November does fall inside the Atlantic hurricane calendar: the dates sit in the hurricane-season guide, and conditions on the ground are tracked in our Hurricane Melissa update.

How busy is the South Coast in November? Crowds, booking windows and prices

November falls in the gap between the storm-season months and the holiday weeks that start in late December. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for the South Coast, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. What can be said from the calendar alone: Christmas, New Year and spring break all sit outside November, and the coast’s own rooms are thin on the ground compared with the resort strips at Negril or Montego Bay.

Flights are the piece to lock first, and six to eight weeks out (est.) is a sane window for a vacation of this size. Thanksgiving week is the one week of the month with a fixed US holiday attached, so treat it as the exception when you price seats in the flights guide and book your airport transfer alongside them. Three or four nights (est.) is the usual shape of a South Coast leg inside a longer ten-day itinerary.

We could not verify Jamaica’s lodging-tax rate, so we give no percentage. Compare two quotes only once you have found the tax line on each confirmation, since a headline nightly rate and a total can diverge by a real amount. The daily cost lines we do treat are in the trip-cost guide.

One upgrade genuinely changes this month rather than flattering it: your own car. Treasure Beach, Black River and YS Falls sit well apart, a 5:35 p.m. sunset shortens the shuttling day, and a wet morning is only a rescheduling problem if you control the wheels. Driving in Jamaica covers the roads and the rules. We could not verify current rental rates, so we give no daily figure.

Things to do on the South Coast in November: Treasure Beach, Black River and YS Falls

What November offers that October cannot is a run of dry mornings: 5.2 wet days against 12.0, and 2.04 inches against 4.33. River boats, waterfall afternoons and the long coastal drive all hang on the same condition, a sky that holds until lunch, and November supplies it on roughly five days out of six.

The named targets on this coast are Treasure Beach, which sits directly under the grid cell every temperature here comes from, the Black River mangroves, YS Falls inland, Floyd’s Pelican Bar out on its sandbar, and the cliff at Lovers’ Leap. We could not verify current entry fees, boat fares or opening hours for any of them, so none appear here. Things to do in Jamaica describes what each one involves, and the operator’s own desk settles the times.

A river or a waterfall scarcely registers the calendar. The air and the sea do, and the interesting part is the order between them. In October and November the water reads warmer than the average daytime high (87.8 against 85.9, then 86.0 against 85.2). By December the order flips, 84.0 against 84.7, and the swim stops being the warmest thing in the day.

We verified no free-entry day and no dated November event on this coast, so we name none. The free asset of the month is the one you can measure: 11 hours 20 minutes of daylight on the 15th, with sunrise at 6:15 a.m., which puts two usable beach hours in the bank before breakfast.

The South Coast in November: a two-day itinerary

Day one starts at 6:15 with the sunrise and a swim before 7, when the water has had all night to shed heat and still reads far above the 75.8°F air. Aim to be afloat on the Black River by nine, while the dry morning holds. Lunch late, then keep the middle of the afternoon shaded, because 85.2°F in full sun is warmer than the number looks. Be back on the beach by five for the 5:35 sunset.

Day two goes inland to YS Falls, early again, and keeps the drive home inside daylight. If the wet day lands on you, flip the order: only 0.1 day in an average November reaches a full inch, so the rain is rarely an all-day affair, and a covered lunch plus an afternoon at Floyd’s Pelican Bar usually outlasts it. Confirm the boat’s running before you drive out.

The South Coast in November vs October and December

Across the three months the air hardly moves: 1.2°F separates October’s 85.9 from December’s 84.7. Rain does all the traveling. October’s 4.33 inches fall to 2.04 in November, a drop of 2.29 inches, and the count of measurable days more than halves, 12.0 to 5.2. December then cuts it again to 0.90 inch over 1.5 days. The sea steps down in near-equal increments, 87.8, then 86.0, then 84.0.

Shift four weeks earlier and you buy 1.8°F of extra water and lose seven wet days to the calendar, which is the bargain weighed in our October page. Shift four weeks later and you gain the driest of the three at 0.90 inch while the sea drops 2.0°F and nights cool 1.6°F to 74.2. November is the middle term in both directions, and the only one of the three that is dry and above 86.0°F at once.

Is November a good time to visit the South Coast?

For swimmers, boat people and anyone driving this coast themselves, yes. Water at 86.0°F with five or six wet days is a strong combination, and the sights here reward a dry morning more than a warm afternoon. For a traveler who needs certainty across a fixed week, and who has no flexibility to move a river trip by a day, November still carries 2.04 inches and no wind data we could verify.

If certainty is the priority, take December: 0.90 inch over 1.5 days is the driest of the three months on our table. The price is a sea at 84.0°F rather than 86.0 and nights at 74.2°F rather than 75.8, plus a holiday calendar that fills the last two weeks. Anyone chasing the warmest possible water should go the other way and read the twelve-month verdict first.

No other month in the trio gives you a sea running warmer than the day’s average high while the rain has already fallen below half of October’s total.

The last word

Half a degree separates November’s 85.2°F from December’s 84.7°F, which is no reason at all to move a trip. The 3.7 rain days and 1.14 inches between them might be, and so might the 2.0°F the sea loses on the way. Decide by the water and the boat morning, not by the thermometer on land: book the dates, then put the Black River trip on day one and hold day three in reserve for the wet one.

Sources & data, with the dates we checked them

• November normals (85.2°F high, 75.8°F low, 2.04 in, 5.2 days at 0.10 in, 0.1 day at 1 in) · Open-Meteo / ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis, 1991-2020, grid cell 17.8767° N 77.7588° W over Treasure Beach, Saint Elizabeth · checked Sep 20, 2026
• October and December normals (85.9/77.4, 4.33 in, 12.0 days · 84.7/74.2, 0.90 in, 1.5 days) · same ERA5 cell and period · checked Sep 20, 2026
• Sea surface 86.0°F in November, 87.8°F in October, 84.0°F in December, all means of daily maxima · Open-Meteo Marine API, 2015-2024 · checked Sep 20, 2026
• Daylight 11 h 20 min on November 15, sunrise 11:15 UTC and sunset 22:35 UTC, converted to local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 20, 2026
• Editorial caveat: ERA5 is a model reanalysis over a grid cell, not a station thermometer, and a reading taken at Treasure Beach or Black River could differ. We could not verify entry fees, opening hours, boat fares, rental rates, room rates, occupancy or the lodging-tax rate, so no such figure appears above · confirm with operators when you book.

To plan your stay

• Things to Do on Jamaica's South Coast: Black River Crocodiles, YS Falls, Floyd's Pelican Bar and Treasure Beach
• Best Time to Visit Jamaica's South Coast: Weather, Sea Temperature and the Quiet Months
• The South Coast in October: Weather, Sea Temperature and How November Compares
• The South Coast in December: Weather, Sea Temperature, Rain Days and a Two-Day Plan

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