Weather in Mumbai in December

A good month. December works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs average 31.8 °C, lows 17.9 °C, and rain falls on 1 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

December is the highest-scoring month of the twelve. The nearest rival is January, and the month at the other end of the year is May.

Rain falls on only 1 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Pack for 31.8 °C days and 17.9 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 26 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 37.7 °C and the coldest night fell to 12.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 44 mm — roughly 880% of the month's rain in one day.

December is dependably dry, and that reliability is the point: across the twenty years measured, the wettest December on record still only managed 47 mm, and the driest managed 0 mm. There is no meaningful variability to plan around, which makes this one of the few months anywhere that you can build a fixed outdoor itinerary against without a fallback. The wettest single day in twenty years of Decembers brought 44 mm. Rain simply is not the variable that decides this trip — heat, crowds and cost are.

Wind is light at 7.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 60%.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 31.9 °C in November, 31.8 here, 32.7 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Mumbai's year — 11 hours of daylight against 13.3 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 27.5 °C in December — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.7 °C in May and bottoms out at 26.1 °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

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead.

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

December in Mumbai versus nearby

If Mumbai is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Virār is a better bet in December — 4.3 °C cooler, the same number of rain days. Pune is a better bet in December — 3.8 °C cooler, the same number of rain days.

So: December is the answer for Mumbai. If it is booked out or priced out, January is the next best thing at 3 points behind, and May is the month to keep off the shortlist.

Every month in Mumbai

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