Weather in Gdańsk in December

The month to avoid. December is the month most people should skip in Gdańsk. Highs sit at 3.1 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

December ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Gdańsk's year. August is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 54 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 14 wet days but only 1 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 3.1 °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: 11 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 2.8 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 10.3 °C and the coldest night fell to -11.8 °C.

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 106 mm against 34 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 65 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind sits around 20.1 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 91%, which at 3.1 °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: 3.9 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 2.1 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Gdańsk's year — 7.4 hours of daylight against 17.2 at midsummer, losing 0.4 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 6.4 °C in December — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 18.8 °C in August and bottoms out at 3 °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

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 Gdańsk versus nearby

If Gdańsk is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Warsaw is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 4 days less rain. Szczecin is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: December is a compromise. August is 50 points better and is what Gdańsk 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 Gdańsk

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