Weather in Anchorage in December

The month to avoid. December is the month most people should skip in Anchorage. Highs sit at -3.4 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

December ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Anchorage's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 54 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 16 wet days but only 1 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at -3.4 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 28 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen; the day barely swings — 4 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 5.4 °C and the coldest night fell to -23.1 °C.

December is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest December on record still delivered 107 mm against 36 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 64 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 7.5 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 93%, which at -3.4 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: -1.5 °C in November, -3.4 here, -4.6 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Anchorage's year — 5.5 hours of daylight against 19.3 at midsummer, losing 0.7 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 27 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

December in Anchorage versus nearby

If Anchorage is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Prince George is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain. Tofino is a better bet in December — 10.9 °C warmer, 5 days more rain.

So: December is a compromise. July is 54 points better and is what Anchorage is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Anchorage

See all twelve months in Anchorage, or where else to go in December.