Weather in Sedona in December

Shoulder season. December is shoulder season in Sedona — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 11.6 °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 Sedona's year. April is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 55 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain falls on only 6 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 11.6 °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: 16 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 23.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -17.7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 57 mm — roughly 112% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 0 mm in the driest year against 123 mm in the wettest, around an average of 51 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 2.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 62%.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 17.9 °C in November, 11.6 here, 12 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Sedona's year — 9.8 hours of daylight against 14.5 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 — 35.2 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 1326 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

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 Sedona versus nearby

If Sedona is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Phoenix is a better bet in December — 8.1 °C warmer, 2 days less rain. Tucson is a better bet in December — 7.3 °C warmer, 1 day less rain.

So: December is a compromise. April is 33 points better and is what Sedona 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 Sedona

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