Weather in Minneapolis in December

The month to avoid. December is the month most people should skip in Minneapolis. Highs sit at -2.8 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

December ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Minneapolis's year. September is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 53 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain falls on only 6 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at -2.8 °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: 30 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 16.3 °C and the coldest night fell to -34.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 29 mm — roughly 78% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 9 mm in the driest year against 73 mm in the wettest, around an average of 37 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 9.6 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 87%, which at -2.8 °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: 8.5 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 2.8 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Minneapolis's year — 8.8 hours of daylight against 15.6 at midsummer, holding steady all month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

Minneapolis has no sea to moderate it, and it shows: 43.8 °C separates the hottest afternoon of the year from the coldest night. That is a genuinely continental range, and it means summer and winter here are barely the same place.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

December in Minneapolis versus nearby

If Minneapolis is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Sioux Falls is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Des Moines is close enough to be a coin toss — 4.6 °C warmer, the same number of rain days.

So: December is a compromise. September is 53 points better and is what Minneapolis 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 Minneapolis

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