The figure, and how wide it really is
At noon across the years from 1930 to 2035 the Sun on this date sits between about 12.1 and 13.5 degrees of Scorpio. The extreme years differ by roughly a degree and a third, which is about a day and a third of solar motion, and most years fall closer to the middle of that band than to either end.
Compared with the thirty degree width of a sign, that is small. Compared with the ten degree width of a face, it is small enough that the face never changes on this date. It is not small enough to ignore if you are working with aspects, where an orb of a degree is a real difference, which is why the exact year still matters for anything precise.
The saw tooth, not a drift
The Sun takes about three hundred and sixty five and a quarter days to return to the same longitude, and the common year is three hundred and sixty five. The quarter day left over means the Sun arrives about six hours later, by the clock, each year.
After three ordinary years that lag is close to eighteen hours. Then February gains a day, the calendar jumps forward, and the lag resets to something slightly negative. Plot the position on a fixed date against the year and you get a rising line that drops back every fourth step, repeating without going anywhere. That shape is the whole reason a printed table of sign dates works at all, and also the reason such tables are wrong for a day at the edges of each sign.
What the degree is good for
A sign tells you which thirty degree slice the Sun is in. A degree tells you where in the slice, and that is the unit almost everything else in a chart is measured in. Whether a transit contacts your Sun, whether a synastry aspect between two charts is close or wide, which house cusp the Sun sits near: all of those are degree questions.
The face is the other thing a degree buys you. Thirteen degrees of Scorpio falls in the middle band, from ten to twenty, which the Chaldean order gives to the Sun and the triplicity count gives to Pisces. Neither planet is one you would guess from the sign name, and the tradition treats the middle face as the least guarded stretch of Scorpio for exactly that reason.
Where the steadiness runs out
None of this extends to the Moon. It moves about thirteen degrees a day, so its position on a fixed calendar date is effectively unrelated from one year to the next, and no useful figure can be quoted without the year and the hour.
The same goes for the Ascendant, which depends on the rotation of the Earth rather than its orbit, and therefore on the clock time and the birthplace. The steadiness described here is a property of the Sun alone, and it is the reason the sun sign became the placement everyone knows. It is also why it carries so little that is specific to a person born on the date.
Questions people ask about this
Is 5 November always Scorpio?
Yes. The Sun entered Scorpio in the third week of October and does not leave until around the twenty second of November, so this date is far from any sign boundary.
How much does the Sun's position vary on this date?
By about a degree and a third at noon across 1930 to 2035, running from roughly 12.1 to 13.5 degrees of Scorpio. That is a little over a day of solar motion.
Why does it vary at all?
Because a common year is a quarter day shorter than the orbital period. The Sun arrives later each ordinary year and the leap day pulls it back, producing a repeating cycle rather than a drift.
Which decan applies?
The second face of Scorpio, ten to twenty degrees, in every year of the modern range. The Chaldean order attributes it to the Sun and the triplicity scheme to Pisces.
Does the degree matter in practice?
Yes, for anything measured in degrees, which is most of a chart. Aspects, transits and house cusps are all degree based, and a sign label alone will not settle any of them.
Does the Moon behave the same way on a fixed date?
No. It moves too fast for a calendar date to constrain it usefully, so its sign on 5 November is different from year to year and often changes within the day.