Weather in Kagoshima in December

Shoulder season. December is shoulder season in Kagoshima — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 14.6 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

December ranks 5 of 12 in Kagoshima: past the worst of the year but short of October, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 10 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 14.6 °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 24.1 °C and the coldest night fell to -0.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 97 mm — roughly 96% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 25 mm in the driest year against 200 mm in the wettest, around an average of 101 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 15.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 77%, which at 14.6 °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: 5.2 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 2 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Kagoshima's year — 10.1 hours of daylight against 14.2 at midsummer, holding steady all month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 22.4 °C in December — comfortable for a proper swim. The sea peaks at 29.2 °C in August and bottoms out at 20.1 °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

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

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

December in Kagoshima versus nearby

If Kagoshima is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Fukuoka is the weaker option in December — 3.2 °C cooler, the same number of rain days. Kitakyushu is the weaker option in December — 2.9 °C cooler, 1 day more rain.

So: December works, with October the better month by 14 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Kagoshima

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