Weather in Daegu in December

The month to avoid. December is the month most people should skip in Daegu. Highs sit at 5.4 °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 Daegu's year. October is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 59 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain falls on only 4 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 5.4 °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: 26 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 19.3 °C and the coldest night fell to -17.2 °C.

December is moderately variable: 4 mm in the driest year against 60 mm in the wettest, around an average of 24 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 9.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 79%, which at 5.4 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How December sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 7.8 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 1.9 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Daegu's year — 9.7 hours of daylight against 14.6 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 — 36.8 °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 Daegu versus nearby

If Daegu is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Busan is a better bet in December — 2.7 °C warmer, the same number of rain days. Gwangju is a better bet in December — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain.

So: December is a compromise. October is 59 points better and is what Daegu 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 Daegu

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