Climate averages 1991–2020
Punta Arenas weather
in December.
A cool, moderately wet month: the 3rd warmest and the 11th driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
December is a cool month in Punta Arenas: daytime highs average 11.4°C and nights cool to about 6.1°C. By daytime temperature it is the 3rd warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 88 mm of rain on roughly 21 days, which makes December a moderately wet month (the 11th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 16 h 50 min on an average December day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Río Gallegos (205 km away). In December its highs average 17.2°C, 5.7°C warmer than Punta Arenas, with 48 mm of rain.
Among the 40 cities listed in Chile, Punta Arenas ranks 40th of 40 for the warmest December highs and 39th of 40 for the driest December (rainfall, lowest first). The mean December high of those 40 cities is 23.8°C; Punta Arenas is 12.4°C cooler than that mean.
From December to January, average highs rise by 0.9°C to 12.3°C, and monthly rainfall rises from 88 mm to 89 mm.
The annual picture
December in context
Monthly rainfall
Average total · mmAverages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated
Every month, side by side
Punta Arenas climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 12.3°C7.1°C | 7.1°C | 89 | 20.0 | 16.316 h |
| February | 12.4°C7.0°C | 7.0°C | 69 | 15.6 | 14.615 h |
| March | 11.1°C6.2°C | 6.2°C | 83 | 17.4 | 12.613 h |
| April | 8.8°C4.5°C | 4.5°C | 84 | 15.4 | 10.510 h |
| May | 6.1°C2.5°C | 2.5°C | 60 | 13.2 | 8.69 h |
| June | 3.8°C0.6°C | 0.6°C | 56 | 12.4 | 7.68 h |
| July | 3.6°C0.1°C | 0.1°C | 56 | 12.8 | 8.18 h |
| August | 4.7°C0.7°C | 0.7°C | 62 | 13.4 | 9.610 h |
| September | 6.7°C1.8°C | 1.8°C | 54 | 12.2 | 11.612 h |
| October | 8.6°C3.2°C | 3.2°C | 69 | 15.5 | 13.714 h |
| November | 10.2°C4.7°C | 4.7°C | 78 | 18.3 | 15.716 h |
| December, selected | 11.4°C6.1°C | 6.1°C | 88 | 20.7 | 16.817 h |
Rainfall is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A rain day is a local calendar day with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Daylight is the calculated sunrise-to-sunset length, not measured sunshine.
Compare places
December in nearby cities
Read the numbers correctly
Climate, not a promise.
These patterns help compare months. They cannot tell you the weather on a specific day of your trip.
Sources, method and limitsHow these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Punta Arenas) is explained once on the Punta Arenas year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.