Weather in Ankara in December

A hard month. December is a hard month in Ankara, and worth planning around. Highs sit at 6.9 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

December ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Ankara's year. September is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 62 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 8 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 6.9 °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: 20 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 18.5 °C and the coldest night fell to -15 °C.

December is moderately variable: 3 mm in the driest year against 138 mm in the wettest, around an average of 46 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 84%, which at 6.9 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How December sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 6.4 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 2.4 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Ankara's year — 9.4 hours of daylight against 15 at midsummer, holding steady all 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 — 36.2 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 850 m the air is thin enough to matter — sun that burns faster than the temperature suggests, and nights that cool off quickly.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

December in Ankara versus nearby

If Ankara is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Eskişehir is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain. Konya is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain.

So: December is a compromise. September is 50 points better and is what Ankara 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 Ankara

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