Weather in Kitakyushu in December

Shoulder season. December sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs sit at 11.7 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

December ranks 10 of 12 — near the bottom of Kitakyushu's year. October is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 36 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 11 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 11.7 °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: the day barely swings — 3.8 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 21.8 °C and the coldest night fell to -2.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 79 mm — roughly 92% 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 143 mm against 27 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 86 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind sits around 18.4 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity is unremarkable at 73%.

How December sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 5.3 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 2.5 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Kitakyushu's year — 9.9 hours of daylight against 14.4 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 18 °C in December — swimmable, but it takes a moment to commit. The sea peaks at 27.4 °C in August and bottoms out at 14.4 °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 Kitakyushu versus nearby

If Kitakyushu is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Fukuoka is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Hiroshima is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: December is a compromise. October is 29 points better and is what Kitakyushu 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 Kitakyushu

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