Weather in Darwin in December

A hard month. December asks something of you. Go in knowing what. You should expect rain on 29 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

December ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Darwin's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 46 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 29 of the month's 31 days, 9 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 31 °C days and 28.1 °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: 23 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional; the day barely swings — 2.9 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 35.3 °C and the coldest night fell to 25.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 101 mm — roughly 35% of the month's rain in one day.

December is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest December on record still delivered 549 mm against 102 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 291 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 11.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 76%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 32.3 °C in November, 31 here, 29.9 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 5 days more than November had.

Daylight in December

Darwin sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.8 hours in December, against a range of just 1.4 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 11.7 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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 Darwin versus nearby

If Darwin is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Broome is the weaker option in December — 6.3 °C warmer, 15 days less rain. Labuan Bajo is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: December is a compromise. July is 40 points better and is what Darwin 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 Darwin

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