COIMBRA · DECEMBER · 1991–2020 NORMALS
Coimbra’s December is measured at Bencanta, down in the Mondego valley: an average high of 60.1°F, an average low of 43.2°F, and 4.38 inches of rain over the month. That is mild by American winter standards and wet by anyone’s, and it falls on the shortest days of the year, with 9 hours 23 minutes of daylight on December 15.
The trade is light. Sunset on December 15 comes at 5:10 pm, which ends the outdoor half of the day early and pushes the Alta’s steep lanes into the middle of the morning. Against that, December totals less rain than November’s 4.78 inches or January’s 4.47, and records fewer wet days than either of them.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · COIMBRA · DECEMBER
December is the driest of Coimbra’s three winter months on total rainfall and the shortest on light: spend the lit hours on the hill and keep an indoor hour in reserve.
HIGH 60.1°F · LOW 43.2°F · 11.1 WET DAYS · 9 H 23 MIN OF DAYLIGHT
Go for: the Alta and Sofia perimeter at 60.1°F in the afternoon, and 4.38 inches spread across roughly a third of the month rather than dumped on a week of it.
Think twice before: planning anything outdoors after 5:10 pm, or counting on a university interior whose hours and admission we could not verify.
Normals: IPMA station 707 Coimbra Bencanta · Daylight: sunrise-sunset.org · Property: UNESCO file 1387bis
On this page
- Average highs, lows and rain days in DecemberThe IPMA normals for Bencanta
- How cold the mornings get43.2°F at dawn, 60.1°F by mid-afternoon
- Crowds, room prices and the city taxWhat we could verify, and what we could not
- Things to do in Coimbra in DecemberThe Joanine Library, Sofia Street, the Botanical Garden
- A two-day plan built around 9 h 23 min of lightHour by hour, both days
- December vs November and JanuaryHow the three months compare
- Is December a good time to visit Coimbra?Our verdict, and the month to pick instead
Everything below is dated to the month. For the city itself, its quarters and the year-round visit, start with our Coimbra guide. For how a December week fits the rest of the country, see when to visit Portugal, and settle the bag with the packing list.
Coimbra weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days
| Coimbra in December | Normal, 1991–2020 |
|---|---|
| Average high | 60.1°F (15.6°C) |
| Average low | 43.2°F (6.2°C) |
| Precipitation | 4.38 in |
| Days with 0.04 in or more | 11.1 |
| Days with 0.39 in or more | 3.7 |
| Daylight on Dec 15 | 9 h 23 min |
| Sunrise / sunset, Dec 15 | 7:47 am / 5:10 pm |
These normals come from IPMA, the Portuguese institute for the sea and the atmosphere, station 707 at Coimbra Bencanta, period 1991 to 2020: a real thermometer at 26.6 meters of altitude, not a model grid cell. Bencanta sits in the Mondego valley, and the valley is not the region. High ground nearby runs colder and considerably wetter, so nobody should pack for a mountain trail on a valley reading.
Rain reaches the gauge on 11.1 days in an average December, which puts measurable rain on roughly one day in three and leaves close to twenty days recording nothing at all. Of those wet days, 3.7 deliver 0.39 inch or more, the kind that settles your morning for you. One caution on the counts: IPMA measures at 0.04 inch, not the 0.10-inch threshold American tables use, so the two sets of rain-day figures are not interchangeable.
Between the 60.1°F afternoon and the 43.2°F night sit 16.9°F, and you feel all of them walking down from the Alta after dark. A sweater plus a shell handles that range better than one heavy coat, because the coat becomes luggage by noon. Rain one day in three argues for the shell being waterproof rather than water-resistant, and for shoes with grip: the old town is stone, the stone is on a slope, and wet stone on a slope has no mercy.
On December 15 the sun rises at 7:47 am and sets at 5:10 pm, Lisbon time, for 9 hours 23 minutes of daylight. Usable outdoor light therefore runs from around half past eight to around half past four, and those are the hours to spend uphill. Libraries, chapels and museums belong at the dark end of the afternoon, which costs you nothing socially: dinner in Portugal starts late anyway.
How warm is Coimbra in December?
Put the two figures together and a normal December day runs from 43.2°F at its coldest to 60.1°F at its warmest. That 16.9°F swing is the tightest of the three winter months: November swings 17.5°F, January 17.6°F. A normal describes thirty Decembers, not your Tuesday, so read it as the shape of the month rather than a forecast.
A 43.2°F start in the Alta wants gloves for the first hour and loses them by eleven. By mid-afternoon, 60.1°F in sun on the Botanical Garden’s terraces is sweater weather with the coat over your arm. The order of a good day follows that curve: uphill and indoors early, gardens and riverbank after lunch, back under a roof before the light goes at 5:10 pm.
We could not verify a frost-night count for Bencanta, so we give no number of freezing nights. What the normals do say is that the average low sits 11.2°F above freezing, which keeps frost off the list of things to plan around without ruling out a cold clear night in the valley. We also hold no sea-surface reading for the coast west of the city, so we give no water temperature: Coimbra is a river town, and the Mondego is not a December swimming plan.
How busy is Coimbra in December? Crowds, prices and booking
No occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Coimbra turned up in our sources, so we rank no month cheap and no month expensive. Two things about December are dated and firm: 11.1 wet days and 9 hours 23 minutes of light in mid-month. Those two govern how a visit here feels far more than any tariff does.
Lead time is the same story. We could not verify how far ahead beds fill in Coimbra in December, so we give no number of weeks. Book early for whatever has to happen indoors and in daylight at once: with the sun down at 5:10 pm, every visitor is competing for the same mid-morning hours inside the university, and we could not read those slot times either.
We could not verify a lodging-tax rate for Coimbra, so no percentage and no per-night figure appear here. If a city tax shows up on your bill at check-in, ask the desk what it costs per night and per person, because we have no number to hand you and the online room rate you compared may not include it.
Pay more for the address than for the room. The inscribed core covers 36.2 hectares, with an 80.8-hectare buffer around it, and it sits on top of the hill: two nights inside that perimeter turn a wet 5 pm into a short walk instead of a climb in the dark. A cheaper bed down by the river costs an hour out of a day that holds only 9 hours 23 minutes of light.
Things to do in Coimbra in December: the Joanine Library, Sofia Street and the Botanical Garden
December suits a visit built on interiors. UNESCO’s inscription covers two components inside the old town, and most of what it lists has a roof over it: the Royal Palace of Alcáçova, St Michael’s Chapel, the Joanine Library with its baroque decor, and a row of colleges. Eleven wet days out of thirty-one wreck an outdoor itinerary; they barely scratch this one.
The property carries its own numbers: 36.2 hectares inscribed in 2013 under criteria (ii), (iv) and (vi), a minor boundary change in 2019, and an 80.8-hectare buffer zone. The Alta component holds the palace, the chapel, the library and six colleges, from Jesus and Holy Trinity to St Anthony of the Quarry and St Rita. The second component is Sofia Street and the nine colleges listed along it, including the old Royal College of the Arts used by the Inquisition.
What December changes is the air around these buildings, not the buildings. The 18th century added the chemistry laboratories, the Botanical Garden and the University Press to the Alta, and the garden is the one piece that keeps a season: give it twenty minutes at 60.1°F in the early afternoon rather than an hour at 43.2°F after breakfast. We could not verify an opening hour or an admission price for the Joanine Library or any other building, so no figure appears here. UNESCO describes a property, it does not run visits.
Free with confidence: the walking. Sofia Street is a public street lined with its colleges, the Alta’s lanes are public at any hour, and the 12th-century Cathedral of Santa Cruz stands among the university buildings on that route. The 1940s University City, also part of the inscription, is open ground you cross rather than a door you pay at.
Coimbra in December: a two-day itinerary
Day one, with sunrise at 7:47 am: coffee at eight, on the hill by nine while the stone is still at its coldest and the lanes are empty. Late morning goes inside the university complex, the palace and St Michael’s Chapel first, the library on whatever slot you were given. Lunch at one in the Alta rather than downhill, so you climb once. Botanical Garden around half past two, when the afternoon reaches 60.1°F. Down to the river by four, under a roof before 5:10 pm.
Day two starts flat, on Sofia Street from the bottom end, working up through its colleges, then the Cathedral of Santa Cruz, then the 1940s University City if the sky allows. If the day turns out to be one of December’s 3.7 heavy ones, flip the order: interiors from opening until mid-afternoon, open ground moved to the next morning. Most December rain here lands under 0.39 inch, which a proper shell absorbs.
Coimbra in December vs November and January
| Normal, 1991–2020 | November | December | January |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 64.4°F (18.0°C) | 60.1°F (15.6°C) | 59.0°F (15.0°C) |
| Average low | 46.9°F (8.3°C) | 43.2°F (6.2°C) | 41.4°F (5.2°C) |
| Precipitation | 4.78 in | 4.38 in | 4.47 in |
| Days with 0.04 in or more | 11.5 | 11.1 | 11.3 |
Across the three months the thermometer moves less than a coat size: 64.4°F, then 60.1, then 59.0 by day, and 46.9, 43.2, 41.4 by night. Rain is where December comes out ahead on paper, at 4.38 inches against November’s 4.78 and January’s 4.47, and 11.1 wet days against 11.5 and 11.3. No sea temperature enters the table, because we hold none for this stretch of coast.
Shift four weeks earlier and November gives you 4.3°F more on the afternoon and 3.7°F more at night, plus longer days, and charges 0.40 inch of extra rain. Shift four weeks later and January costs 1.1°F by day, 1.8°F at night and 0.09 inch of rain, and hands back light: the solstice sits inside December, so every January morning is a little longer than the one before it.
Is December a good time to visit Coimbra?
Yes if your trip is the university. The interiors carry the month, 60.1°F afternoons let you walk a steep old town without suffering, and close to two days in three record no measurable rain at all. No if your Portugal involves a beach or a full outdoor day: 9 hours 23 minutes of light is a hard limit, and nothing about your itinerary negotiates with it.
If the answer is no, take November rather than January. It is the warmest of the three by 4.3°F on the afternoon high, it holds more daylight, and it charges for that with the wettest total of the three at 4.78 inches. January makes the weaker case: colder than December at both ends, wetter on the total, and its one compensation is days that stretch week by week.
December’s own argument is arithmetic: the tightest day-night swing of the three winter months at 16.9°F, the lowest rainfall total at 4.38 inches, and a hill whose best rooms have a roof on them.
The last word
Book the bed inside the 36.2 hectares, keep your mid-morning for whatever the university will let you into, and accept that at 5:10 pm the outdoor day is finished. One more thing to know while you look up at it: UNESCO flags the setting itself as vulnerable, since the place reads as a citadel of learning only from its hilltop position, and large-scale building around it has already altered that. The university has been growing on that hill for more than seven centuries. Walk the far bank of the Mondego once in the low December light and look back up.
Sources & data for this guide
- December normals, rain-day counts and the November and January figures · IPMA, climate normals 1991–2020, station 707 Coimbra Bencanta, altitude 26.6 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise 7:47 am and sunset 5:10 pm on December 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to Europe/Lisbon · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Inscribed area, buffer zone, components and buildings · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, file 1387bis · checked Sep 23, 2026
- IPMA counts wet days at 0.04 in and 0.39 in, not at the 0.10-in threshold used in American tables · the two sets of counts are not interchangeable
- We found no opening hour and no admission price for the Joanine Library or any other building, and no occupancy, room-rate or lodging-tax figure for Coimbra · noted Sep 23, 2026
- Normals describe 1991–2020, not the December you will get · check the forecast and the university ticket office before you book.