Climate averages 1991–2020
Köln weather
in December.
A cold, 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 Köln: daytime highs average 5.8°C and nights cool to about 1.5°C. By daytime temperature it is the 11th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 101 mm of rain on roughly 16 days, which makes December a wet month (the wettest month of the year). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 8 h 02 min on an average December day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Leverkusen (11 km away). In December its highs average 5.9°C, about as warm as Köln, with 101 mm of rain.
Among the 120 cities listed in Germany, Köln ranks joint 11th of 120 for the warmest December highs and joint 110th of 120 for the driest December (rainfall, lowest first). The mean December high of those 120 cities is 4.9°C; Köln is 0.9°C warmer than that mean.
From December to January, average highs fall by 0.6°C to 5.2°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 101 mm to 90 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
Köln climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 5.2°C0.5°C | 0.5°C | 90 | 14.8 | 8.58 h |
| February | 6.4°C0.5°C | 0.5°C | 74 | 12.8 | 10.010 h |
| March | 10.0°C2.3°C | 2.3°C | 73 | 13.7 | 11.812 h |
| April | 14.2°C5.1°C | 5.1°C | 52 | 10.8 | 13.814 h |
| May | 18.0°C9.1°C | 9.1°C | 62 | 11.9 | 15.516 h |
| June | 20.9°C12.3°C | 12.3°C | 70 | 12.2 | 16.416 h |
| July | 23.0°C14.6°C | 14.6°C | 80 | 13.1 | 16.016 h |
| August | 22.9°C14.4°C | 14.4°C | 80 | 11.9 | 14.615 h |
| September | 19.1°C11.4°C | 11.4°C | 71 | 11.3 | 12.713 h |
| October | 14.3°C8.1°C | 8.1°C | 83 | 12.8 | 10.811 h |
| November | 9.1°C4.3°C | 4.3°C | 85 | 14.2 | 9.09 h |
| December, selected | 5.8°C1.5°C | 1.5°C | 101 | 16.0 | 8.08 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
- Leverkusen in DecemberGermany · 11 kmHigh 5.9°C · Low 1.6°C · 101 mm rain
- Bergisch Gladbach in DecemberGermany · 14 kmHigh 5.6°C · Low 1.4°C · 119 mm rain
- Troisdorf in DecemberGermany · 20 kmHigh 5.8°C · Low 1.6°C · 90 mm rain
- Bonn in DecemberGermany · 24 kmHigh 6.0°C · Low 1.7°C · 75 mm rain
- Solingen in DecemberGermany · 28 kmHigh 4.9°C · Low 0.9°C · 106 mm rain
- Remscheid in DecemberGermany · 32 kmHigh 4.2°C · Low 0.1°C · 110 mm rain
- Düsseldorf in DecemberGermany · 34 kmHigh 5.9°C · Low 1.6°C · 89 mm rain
- Neuss in DecemberGermany · 35 kmHigh 6.0°C · Low 1.7°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 Köln) is explained once on the Köln year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Leverkusen lies in the same rainfall cell, so its rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.