Weather in Dar es Salaam in December

Shoulder season. December is shoulder season in Dar es Salaam — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. You should expect rain on 22 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

December ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Dar es Salaam's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 41 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 22 of the month's 31 days, 3 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Pack for 30.2 °C days and 26.4 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 20 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional; the day barely swings — 3.8 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 32.4 °C and the coldest night fell to 25.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 79 mm — roughly 62% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 31 mm in the driest year against 307 mm in the wettest, around an average of 127 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 77%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 30 °C in November, 30.2 here, 30.1 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: January brings 6 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in December

Dar es Salaam sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.5 hours in December, against a range of just 0.8 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 28.7 °C in December — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.5 °C in March and bottoms out at 25.6 °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

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 Dar es Salaam versus nearby

If Dar es Salaam is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Zanzibar is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days less rain. Mombasa is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.9 °C warmer, 7 days less rain.

So: December is a compromise. July is 41 points better and is what Dar es Salaam 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 Dar es Salaam

See all twelve months in Dar es Salaam, or where else to go in December.