Weather in Salt Lake City in December

The month to avoid. December is the month most people should skip in Salt Lake City. Highs sit at 3.1 °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 Salt Lake City's year. September is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 68 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 12 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 3.1 °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: 25 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 15.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -25.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 34 mm — roughly 52% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 9 mm in the driest year against 162 mm in the wettest, around an average of 65 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 4.5 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 81%, which at 3.1 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 10.1 °C in November, 3.1 here, 3 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Salt Lake City's year — 9.3 hours of daylight against 15.1 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 — 39.5 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 1299 m the air is thin enough to matter — sun that burns faster than the temperature suggests, and nights that cool off quickly.

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 Salt Lake City versus nearby

If Salt Lake City is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Park City is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.8 °C cooler, 1 day less rain. Moab is a better bet in December — 4.6 °C warmer, 6 days less rain.

So: December is a compromise. September is 68 points better and is what Salt Lake City 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 Salt Lake City

See all twelve months in Salt Lake City, or where else to go in December.