Climate averages 1991–2020
Essen weather
in December.
A cold, moderately wet month: the 11th warmest and the wettest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
December is a cold month in Essen: daytime highs average 5.5°C and nights cool to about 1.3°C. By daytime temperature it is the 11th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 84 mm of rain on roughly 14 days, which makes December a moderately wet month (the wettest month of the year). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 7 h 56 min on an average December day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Gelsenkirchen (8 km away). In December its highs average 5.7°C, about as warm as Essen, with 84 mm of rain.
Among the 120 cities listed in Germany, Essen ranks joint 28th of 120 for the warmest December highs and joint 86th of 120 for the driest December (rainfall, lowest first). The mean December high of those 120 cities is 4.9°C; Essen is 0.6°C warmer than that mean.
From December to January, average highs fall by 0.6°C to 4.9°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 84 mm to 78 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
Essen climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 4.9°C0.3°C | 0.3°C | 78 | 13.9 | 8.48 h |
| February | 6.2°C0.4°C | 0.4°C | 64 | 12.0 | 9.910 h |
| March | 9.7°C2.3°C | 2.3°C | 65 | 12.8 | 11.812 h |
| April | 14.1°C5.0°C | 5.0°C | 51 | 10.8 | 13.814 h |
| May | 17.8°C9.0°C | 9.0°C | 62 | 11.5 | 15.616 h |
| June | 20.7°C12.2°C | 12.2°C | 70 | 12.0 | 16.517 h |
| July | 22.8°C14.4°C | 14.4°C | 82 | 13.6 | 16.116 h |
| August | 22.5°C14.3°C | 14.3°C | 81 | 12.5 | 14.615 h |
| September | 18.8°C11.4°C | 11.4°C | 69 | 11.0 | 12.713 h |
| October | 14.0°C8.0°C | 8.0°C | 71 | 12.0 | 10.711 h |
| November | 8.9°C4.2°C | 4.2°C | 71 | 13.1 | 8.99 h |
| December, selected | 5.5°C1.3°C | 1.3°C | 84 | 14.1 | 7.98 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
- Gelsenkirchen in DecemberGermany · 8 kmHigh 5.7°C · Low 1.5°C · 84 mm rain
- Mülheim in DecemberGermany · 10 kmHigh 5.8°C · Low 1.8°C · 84 mm rain
- Oberhausen in DecemberGermany · 11 kmHigh 5.7°C · Low 1.6°C · 79 mm rain
- Gladbeck in DecemberGermany · 13 kmHigh 5.6°C · Low 1.5°C · 84 mm rain
- Velbert in DecemberGermany · 14 kmHigh 4.6°C · Low 0.6°C · 106 mm rain
- Bochum in DecemberGermany · 14 kmHigh 5.4°C · Low 1.2°C · 89 mm rain
- Duisburg in DecemberGermany · 17 kmHigh 5.9°C · Low 1.8°C · 79 mm rain
- Ratingen in DecemberGermany · 21 kmHigh 5.7°C · Low 1.6°C · 89 mm rain
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 Essen) is explained once on the Essen year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Gelsenkirchen, Mülheim and Gladbeck lie in the same rainfall cell, so their rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.