Weather in Shimla in December

A good month. December is a solid month to be in Shimla. Highs sit at 12.5 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

December ranks 6 of 12 in Shimla: past the worst of the year but short of October, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain falls on only 2 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 12.5 °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: 13 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 17.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -7.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 28 mm — roughly 215% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 0 mm in the driest year against 34 mm in the wettest, around an average of 13 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 5.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 42%.

How December sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 3.6 °C cooler than November, with January dropping another 2 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in December

December sits at the dark end of Shimla's year — 10.1 hours of daylight against 14.2 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 — 30.2 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 2073 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

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 Shimla versus nearby

If Shimla is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Chandigarh is a better bet in December — 10.7 °C warmer, the same number of rain days. Ludhiana is a better bet in December — 10.3 °C warmer, the same number of rain days.

So: December is a compromise. October is 23 points better and is what Shimla 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 Shimla

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