Weather in Cape Town in December

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, December is the one. Highs average 20.7 °C, lows 17.5 °C, and rain falls on 3 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

December ranks 3 of 12 in Cape Town. Only February scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain falls on only 3 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; the day barely swings — 3.2 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 27 °C and the coldest night fell to 14.5 °C.

December is moderately variable: 4 mm in the driest year against 38 mm in the wettest, around an average of 12 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind sits around 20.2 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 78%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 19.1 °C in November, 20.7 here, 21.7 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December is at or near the longest days of Cape Town's year: 14.4 hours of daylight, holding steady all month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 19.8 °C in December — swimmable, but it takes a moment to commit. The sea peaks at 20.8 °C in February and bottoms out at 16.5 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, April is the trade worth considering — 11 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

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

December in Cape Town versus nearby

If Cape Town is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Gqeberha is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.5 °C warmer, 4 days more rain. Pietermaritzburg is the weaker option in December — 7.2 °C warmer, 22 days more rain.

So: December is effectively as good as it gets here — 2 points behind February, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in Cape Town

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