Climate averages 1991–2020

Zaandam weather
in December.

A cold, moderately wet month: the 10th warmest and the joint 8th driest of the year.

Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.

Average high 6.5°C Daytime mean, December
Average low 3.1°C Night-time mean, December
Rainfall 79 mm 14 days with ≥1 mm
Daylight 8 h Sunrise to sunset, per day
Every month in Zaandam · average highYear overview

December is a cold month in Zaandam: daytime highs average 6.5°C and nights cool to about 3.1°C. By daytime temperature it is the 10th warmest of the 12 months.

Expect about 79 mm of rain on roughly 14 days, which makes December a moderately wet month (the joint 8th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 7 h 47 min on an average December day.

The nearest other city in this atlas is Zaanstad (2 km away). In December its highs average 6.6°C, about as warm as Zaandam, with 79 mm of rain.

Among the 44 cities listed in the Netherlands, Zaandam ranks joint 12th of 44 for the warmest December highs and joint 36th of 44 for the driest December (rainfall, lowest first). The mean December high of those 44 cities is 6.2°C; Zaandam is 0.3°C warmer than that mean.

From December to January, average highs fall by 0.7°C to 5.8°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 79 mm to 69 mm.

The annual picture

December in context

30-year average
Average highAverage low°C
Average daily high and low temperatures by month The same values are available in the monthly table below. Lines show mean daily maxima and minima, not a forecast interval. 0510152025 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Monthly rainfall

Average total · mm
Average monthly rainfall totalsEach bar is a mean monthly total over 1991–2020. Full numbers are in the table. JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 1000

Averages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated

Every month, side by side

Zaandam climate table

1991–2020
Monthly climate averages for Zaandam, 1991–2020
MonthAverage highHigh / lowAverage lowRainfall mm/monthRain days ≥1 mm/dayDaylight hours/dayDay­light h/day
January 5.8°C2.2°C2.2°C6913.28.38 h
February 6.3°C2.0°C2.0°C5411.09.910 h
March 8.9°C3.7°C3.7°C5210.711.812 h
April 12.5°C6.2°C6.2°C4410.113.914 h
May 15.9°C9.7°C9.7°C5810.415.716 h
June 18.4°C12.6°C12.6°C6311.316.717 h
July 20.5°C14.9°C14.9°C7913.016.316 h
August 20.6°C15.2°C15.2°C9013.314.715 h
September 17.9°C12.9°C12.9°C8412.712.713 h
October 14.0°C9.5°C9.5°C8814.110.711 h
November 9.6°C6.0°C6.0°C7714.88.89 h
December, selected 6.5°C3.1°C3.1°C7914.27.88 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

Distance from Zaandam

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 limits

How these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Zaandam) is explained once on the Zaandam year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.

Haarlem and Zaanstad lie in the same rainfall cell, so their rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.