Weather in Kuala Lumpur in December

A hard month. December asks something of you. Go in knowing what. You should expect rain on 25 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

Kuala Lumpur barely has seasons. December scores 46 out of 100 against a best of 46 in July — a gap small enough that the month you choose matters far less here than the week you choose. That is not a contradiction: December is among the best months Kuala Lumpur has, and it is still hard going. This is a city with no easy season rather than a city you have caught at a bad time.

Rain on 25 of the month's 31 days, 9 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 89% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 13 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 33.1 °C and the coldest night fell to 19.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 54 mm — roughly 21% 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 399 mm against 139 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 263 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity at 89% is the real story though — it is the number that decides how the day feels, not the 29.5 °C.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 30 °C in November, 29.5 here, 29.9 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

Kuala Lumpur sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 11.9 hours in December, against a range of just 0.4 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 8.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, June is the trade worth considering — 2 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

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

December in Kuala Lumpur versus nearby

If Kuala Lumpur is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Ipoh is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. Kuantan is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: December is effectively as good as it gets here — 0 points behind July, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in Kuala Lumpur

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