Weather in İzmir in December

Shoulder season. December sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs sit at 13.5 °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 İzmir's year. May is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 40 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 11 days, 4 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 13.5 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 21.8 °C and the coldest night fell to -2.2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 47 mm — roughly 43% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 0 mm in the driest year against 208 mm in the wettest, around an average of 110 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 12.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 81%, which at 13.5 °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: 5 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 1.6 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of İzmir's year — 9.5 hours of daylight against 14.8 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 — 28.9 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

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 İzmir versus nearby

If İzmir is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Ródos is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.2 °C warmer, 2 days more rain. Bursa is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: December is a compromise. May is 33 points better and is what İzmir 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 İzmir

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