Weather in Marseille in December

Shoulder season. December sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs sit at 12.6 °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 Marseille's year. May is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 27 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 7 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 12.6 °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: 3 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 19.3 °C and the coldest night fell to -5.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 46 mm — roughly 85% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 2 mm in the driest year against 130 mm in the wettest, around an average of 54 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 10.2 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 84%, which at 12.6 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 16.5 °C in November, 12.6 here, 11.8 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Marseille's year — 9 hours of daylight against 15.4 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 14.8 °C in December — cold — a quick dip rather than a swim, and a wetsuit if you are in for longer. The sea peaks at 22.3 °C in August and bottoms out at 12.6 °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 Marseille versus nearby

If Marseille is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Montpellier is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days. Nice is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain.

So: December is a compromise. May is 25 points better and is what Marseille 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 Marseille

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