Weather in Ho Chi Minh City in December

A good month. December works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs average 31.1 °C, lows 21.8 °C, and rain falls on 5 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

December is the highest-scoring month of the twelve. The nearest rival is January, and the month at the other end of the year is April.

Rain falls on only 5 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Pack for 31.1 °C days and 21.8 °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: 22 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 38.1 °C and the coldest night fell to 15.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 32 mm — roughly 100% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. December rainfall has ranged from 0 mm to 103 mm across the twenty years measured — a 103 mm spread around an average of 32 mm. The average is real but almost no individual December looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 5.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 79%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 30.9 °C in November, 31.1 here, 33 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 9 days fewer than November had.

Daylight in December

Ho Chi Minh City sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 11.5 hours in December, against a range of just 1.3 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 26.5 °C in December — warm enough to stay in as long as you like. The sea peaks at 29.9 °C in May and bottoms out at 25.3 °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

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead.

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

December in Ho Chi Minh City versus nearby

If Ho Chi Minh City is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Vũng Tàu is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain. Cần Thơ is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain.

So: December is the answer for Ho Chi Minh City. If it is booked out or priced out, January is the next best thing at 2 points behind, and April is the month to keep off the shortlist.

Every month in Ho Chi Minh City

See all twelve months in Ho Chi Minh City, or where else to go in December.