Weather in Nice in December

Shoulder season. December sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs sit at 13.4 °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 Nice's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 34 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 9 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 13.4 °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 — 2.1 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 17.8 °C and the coldest night fell to 3.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 56 mm — roughly 70% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 2 mm in the driest year against 180 mm in the wettest, around an average of 80 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind sits around 16.2 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity is unremarkable at 71%.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 16.1 °C in November, 13.4 here, 12.2 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Nice'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 14.6 °C in December — cold — a quick dip rather than a swim, and a wetsuit if you are in for longer. The sea peaks at 24 °C in August and bottoms out at 13.1 °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

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 Nice versus nearby

If Nice is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Genoa is the weaker option in December — 2.7 °C cooler, the same number of rain days. Marseille is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: December is a compromise. July is 32 points better and is what Nice 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 Nice

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