Weather in Qingdao in December

A hard month. December asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 6.3 °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 Qingdao's year. October is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 62 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain falls on only 3 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 6.3 °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: 8 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 4 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 15.7 °C and the coldest night fell to -7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 27 mm — roughly 169% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 1 mm in the driest year against 40 mm in the wettest, around an average of 16 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind sits around 17.6 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

The month is on the way down: 6.9 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 2.6 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Qingdao's year — 9.7 hours of daylight against 14.6 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 12.3 °C in December — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 26.6 °C in August and bottoms out at 6.3 °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

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

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

December in Qingdao versus nearby

If Qingdao is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Nanjing is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.3 °C warmer, 4 days more rain. Shanghai is close enough to be a coin toss — 4.5 °C warmer, 5 days more rain.

So: December is a compromise. October is 44 points better and is what Qingdao 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 Qingdao

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