My wife and I are thinking of renting a car in LA and driving up the coast to San Francisco in November. There was a great article in the Wine Spectator magazine listing places to stay and visit. But I'm wondering what the weather will be like in mid-to-late November? Is it not the best time of the year to do this trip?

Mid to late November is usually the rainy season along the coast. The best weather will be from Monterey Bay south to LA. Often highway 1 north of Monterey is closed due to mud slides along Devil's Slide.

You might get some nice weather or you might get rain - the rainy season from Nov to Apr, but it's not solid rain. Usually a storm comes in and it rains for a couple days, and then the sun comes out. Even if we get back to back storms, the rain is usually intermitent and there are breaks between storms. Hwy 1 can get washed out south of Monterey and north of Half Moon Bay in a big storm, so sometimes there are road closures, being early in the season though, the probability of having a storm big enough to close the road is low.

The nice thing about travelling in Nov is that you will not have to deal with crowds and I think the coast on a rainy day is beautiful. The only thing I would worry about is travelling Hwy 1 in a big storm.

The weather is usually still pretty good in November, though your chance of rain probably goes up from the current 1% to perhaps 15%. If a storm does come through, it will likely clear off by the next day, so unless you are on a tight schedule, I wouldn't worry.

I can't recall Hwy 1 being closed in Nov by storm damage; if it happens, that's usually a day or two in Jan, Feb, or Mar (though on occasion it has been closed for weeks).

We went in November a few years ago and boy did it rain. I would suggest either late summer or early fall.