Weather in Sacramento in December

Shoulder season. December sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs sit at 14.8 °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 Sacramento's year. May is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 63 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 11 days, 4 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 14.8 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 25.3 °C and the coldest night fell to -3.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 69 mm — roughly 58% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 3 mm in the driest year against 250 mm in the wettest, around an average of 118 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

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 71%.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 20 °C in November, 14.8 here, 15.1 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Sacramento's year — 9.5 hours of daylight against 14.8 at midsummer, holding steady all month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 31.9 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

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

December in Sacramento versus nearby

If Sacramento is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Napa is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. San Francisco is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: December is a compromise. May is 33 points better and is what Sacramento 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 Sacramento

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