Climate averages 1991–2020
Pretoria weather
in December.
A warm, wet month: the 4th warmest and the wettest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
December is a warm month in Pretoria: daytime highs average 27.3°C and nights cool to about 16.6°C. By daytime temperature it is the 4th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 113 mm of rain on roughly 15 days, which makes December a wet month (the wettest month of the year). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 13 h 43 min on an average December day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Centurion (13 km away). In December its highs average 26.5°C, 0.8°C cooler than Pretoria, with 113 mm of rain.
Among the 95 cities listed in South Africa, Pretoria ranks joint 36th of 95 for the warmest December highs and joint 49th of 95 for the driest December (rainfall, lowest first). The mean December high of those 95 cities is 26.6°C; Pretoria is 0.7°C warmer than that mean.
From December to January, average highs rise by 0.3°C to 27.6°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 113 mm to 103 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
Pretoria climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 27.6°C17.1°C | 17.1°C | 103 | 14.7 | 13.514 h |
| February | 27.6°C17.0°C | 17.0°C | 93 | 11.9 | 13.013 h |
| March | 26.1°C15.5°C | 15.5°C | 83 | 10.4 | 12.312 h |
| April | 23.6°C12.4°C | 12.4°C | 37 | 6.2 | 11.512 h |
| May | 21.6°C8.7°C | 8.7°C | 15 | 2.6 | 10.911 h |
| June | 19.0°C5.6°C | 5.6°C | 7.2 | 1.1 | 10.611 h |
| July | 19.2°C5.1°C | 5.1°C | 3.2 | 0.7 | 10.711 h |
| August | 22.5°C7.7°C | 7.7°C | 7.0 | 1.4 | 11.211 h |
| September | 26.6°C11.5°C | 11.5°C | 17 | 2.5 | 11.912 h |
| October | 27.5°C13.9°C | 13.9°C | 63 | 8.4 | 12.713 h |
| November | 27.1°C15.2°C | 15.2°C | 90 | 12.4 | 13.413 h |
| December, selected | 27.3°C16.6°C | 16.6°C | 113 | 15.2 | 13.714 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
- Centurion in DecemberSouth Africa · 13 kmHigh 26.5°C · Low 16.0°C · 113 mm rain
- Ga-Rankuwa in DecemberSouth Africa · 24 kmHigh 28.0°C · Low 17.2°C · 105 mm rain
- Midrand in DecemberSouth Africa · 27 kmHigh 25.2°C · Low 14.6°C · 117 mm rain
- Thembisa in DecemberSouth Africa · 28 kmHigh 25.5°C · Low 15.0°C · 116 mm rain
- Soshanguve in DecemberSouth Africa · 32 kmHigh 28.4°C · Low 17.6°C · 105 mm rain
- Hammanskraal in DecemberSouth Africa · 39 kmHigh 29.0°C · Low 17.9°C · 104 mm rain
- Brits in DecemberSouth Africa · 43 kmHigh 28.8°C · Low 17.9°C · 113 mm rain
- Randburg in DecemberSouth Africa · 43 kmHigh 25.4°C · Low 14.8°C · 117 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 Pretoria) is explained once on the Pretoria year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Centurion lies in the same rainfall cell, so its rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.