Weather in Bakersfield in December

Prime time. December is about as good as Bakersfield gets. Highs average 18.6 °C, lows 7.2 °C, and rain falls on 6 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

December ranks 6 of 12 in Bakersfield: past the worst of the year but short of November, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain falls on only 6 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average December reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 30.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -0.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 44 mm — roughly 110% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. December rainfall has ranged from 1 mm to 185 mm across the twenty years measured — a 184 mm spread around an average of 40 mm. The average is real but almost no individual December looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 6.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 60%.

How December sits in the year

This is a turning point in the year — November and January sit on opposite sides of it, so the month contains the change rather than following it.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Bakersfield's year — 9.8 hours of daylight against 14.5 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 — 32.5 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead.

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

December in Bakersfield versus nearby

If Bakersfield is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Los Angeles is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days. Fresno is the weaker option in December — 3 °C cooler, 2 days more rain.

So: December works, with November the better month by 10 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Bakersfield

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