Tampa in December: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and Prices

TAMPA · DECEMBER · THE MONTH GUIDE

December is the month Tampa stops sweating. The 1991-2020 normals at Tampa International put the average high at 73.9°F and the average low at 55.9°F, and the Atlantic hurricane season closed on November 30, so nothing in the tropics is going to reroute the week you book. Rain is the smallest line on the bill: 2.56 inches across the month, landing on 3.6 days that reach a tenth of an inch.

What the month takes back is water and light. The sea off Tampa averages 66.7°F in December against 74.2°F in November, and December 15 runs 10 hours 25 minutes of daylight, with the sun gone at 5:38 PM Eastern. Add the Christmas-to-New-Year stretch, when the whole state travels at once, and choosing December becomes a question of which dates you fly, not whether Tampa is worth the trip.

On this page

• Average highs, lows and rain daysThe December normals, from the airport gauge
• Can you swim in Tampa in December?Sea at 66.7°F
• Crowds, booking lead time and the lodging taxThe two halves of the month
• Things to do in Tampa in DecemberYbor City, the river parks, the springs
• A two-day itineraryTwo days around a 5:38 PM sunset
• December vs November and JanuaryThe three months, same station
• Is December a good time to visit Tampa?The verdict, for and against

Both neighbors have their own pages, with the same station behind their numbers: Tampa in November and Tampa in January. The whole-state calendar lives in the best time to visit Florida, and what a week runs to in our Florida trip cost guide.

Tampa weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days

Every figure here comes from one thermometer rather than a grid cell: NOAA station USW00012842, listed as TAMPA INTL AP, on the 1991-2020 monthly normals. That gauge sits at the airport, inland on the bay side and not on a beach, so 73.9°F is the benchmark for the city, and a breezy shoreline afternoon is not guaranteed to match it. Reanalysis tables on other sites can differ by a couple of degrees, most of it on the overnight low.

The 2.56 inches arrive in very few pieces. An average December records 3.6 days at a tenth of an inch or more, measurable rain about one day in eight, and only 0.7 of a day reaches a full inch, so a genuine soaking shows up in roughly two Decembers out of three. Stack two outdoor days back to back and the odds are with you. The same gamble in January costs more: 4.4 wet days there.

Eighteen degrees separate the average high from the average low, and the split falls on either side of sunset. Afternoons are shirt weather, the hour after 5:38 PM is not, so pack a fleece or a light jacket per person and long pants for the evening. Frost barely registers: the normals count 0.1 nights at or below 32°F in an average December, which works out to about one freezing night per decade at the airport.

December 15 gives 10 hours 25 minutes between a 7:12 AM sunrise and a 5:38 PM sunset, Eastern time. That governs the shape of a Tampa day this month more than the temperature does. A state park an hour out of town wants an 8 AM departure if you intend to paddle and hike the same day, and anything you were saving for late afternoon happens in the dark.

Can you swim in Tampa in December? Sea temperature and what it feels like

The sea surface off Tampa averages 66.7°F in December in the Open-Meteo Marine record, taken over 2015-2024. One caveat rides along with that figure: it is the mean of daily maxima, so it reads a shade warmer than a 24-hour average of the same water. On the identical basis, November comes in at 74.2°F and January at 63.0°F, which makes December the steep part of the slide rather than the bottom of it.

Seven degrees separate the water from the air on an average December afternoon, 66.7°F against 73.9°F, and that gap is the swim in one line: fine for a ten-minute dip and a long beach walk, cold for an hour of floating, colder still for a small child. Rash guards and wetsuit tops are ordinary winter gear on this coast. If the vacation was built on swimming, the spring parks north of town hold their temperature all year and the Gulf does not.

On wind and swell we have nothing month-specific to offer. The marine series we read carries sea surface temperature and not a December wind or wave climatology for Tampa Bay, and no number gets estimated here to fill the hole. Check the marine forecast the morning you go out. The tropical half of the risk, at least, is settled: the Atlantic season ran June 1 to November 30 and peaked back on September 10.

How busy is Tampa in December? Crowds, prices and the demand peak

December splits into two different months. Through roughly the 19th, Tampa is a dry-season city doing ordinary business, hurricane season closed since November 30, afternoons at 73.9°F. From Christmas week to New Year’s, the state travels as one, and Tampa shares its rooms with the Orlando parks and every beach on both coasts. No monthly occupancy or room-rate series for Hillsborough County reached us, so that split is a calendar fact and not a price index.

Fixed holiday dates deserve to be locked early. Our working rule for Christmas week anywhere in Florida is to book the room and the rental car by early fall, and it is a rule of thumb rather than a figure from the data. The first three weeks behave differently, and a two-week lead is usually enough outside the holiday stretch (our estimate, not a data point). Flights bracketing December 24 and January 2 are the tight piece, and the airport choice sits in our Florida flights guide.

One layer of the room bill ignores the season entirely. Hillsborough County levies a 6.0% transient rental tax, filed and paid alongside the 6% state sales tax, for 12% added to the nightly rate before any resort fee or parking charge. On local transit we came up empty: the fare pages would not open to us, so no bus or streetcar price appears here, and we invent none. The car question is handled in getting around Florida.

One December spend changes the shape of the trip more than the room does. Port Tampa Bay is a homeport, not a port of call: eight vessels from five cruise lines sail from here, so a Caribbean week in December begins and ends at the same terminal, with the flight into TPA at each end. Paying for a hotel night before the sailing buys the margin when a northern connection collapses in winter weather.

Things to do in Tampa in December: Ybor City, the river state parks and the springs

December hands back the outdoors that summer takes away. Summer afternoons here belong to the thunderstorms, while the December normals read 73.9°F by day with 3.6 days of measurable rain. That is the paddling and trail stretch of the Tampa year. It also sits entirely outside the June 1 to November 30 hurricane season, so nothing on the itinerary needs a refundable clause for tropical reasons, which is a real difference from an October booking.

The state’s own facilities inventory counts what these parks can absorb. Hillsborough River State Park, northeast of downtown, has 350 parking spaces, 3 canoe, kayak and tube launches and 5 miles of hiking trail. Little Manatee River State Park, south of the bay, has 109 spaces, 1 launch and 8.4 miles of trail, the longest walking of the three. Alafia River State Park is the small one: 50 spaces, 1 launch, 1.2 miles. Entrance fees and gate hours we could not read, since the operator pages refused us, so call before you drive.

The springs within reach of Tampa hold their water at one reading all year, while the air above them swings with the season, and that gap is what December changes. Weeki Wachee Springs State Park counts 255 parking spaces and one designated swimming area, Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park 197 spaces, Crystal River Preserve State Park 77. In this month the entry is warm and the towel afterward matters, with an average low of 55.9°F waiting at the end of the day. Manatee season has its own guide.

The state inventory counts spaces, launches and trail miles, not admission, and the fee pages for parks and museums would not load for us, so no December free day and no seasonal discount gets claimed here. What certainly costs nothing is walking: Ybor City Museum State Park counts 311 feet of boardwalk, and the streets of the old cigar district around it make a flat afternoon in 73.9°F air. The museum’s own admission is a number we have not been able to verify.

Tampa in December: a two-day itinerary

Day one runs off the 7:12 AM sunrise. Leave downtown by 8 for Hillsborough River State Park and take the water first, while the air is still in the 50s on its way to a 73.9°F afternoon, using one of the park’s 3 launches. Walk a section of the 5 miles of trail once it warms, then drive back by 3. Sunset at 5:38 PM Eastern puts the riverfront hour before dinner instead of after it, with Ybor City for the evening.

Day two goes north or stays put. North means a spring morning at Weeki Wachee, 255 parking spaces and one designated swimming area, or Homosassa Springs with 197 spaces, and both want a start before 9 to get the light back. If the day turns out to be one of the 3.6 wet ones, keep it in Ybor City: 311 feet of boardwalk at the museum park is short by design, the indoor half carries the morning, and a tenth-of-an-inch day rarely shuts a sidewalk.

Tampa in December vs November and January

The air figures for all three months come from the same NOAA station and the same 1991-2020 period, so the columns compare cleanly: 78.9°F, 73.9°F and 71.3°F on the average high, 60.7, 55.9 and 52.8 on the low. Rain nearly doubles between November’s 1.40 inches and December’s 2.56, then edges to 2.65 in January. Sea surface, which comes from the marine reanalysis rather than the station, drops fastest of all: 74.2°F, then 66.7°F, then 63.0°F.

Shift four weeks earlier and you buy back 7.5 degrees of water and a drier month, 2.3 wet days instead of 3.6, at the cost of sitting inside hurricane season until November 30. Shift four weeks later and January costs you 2.6 degrees by day, 3.1 at night, 4.4 rain days and a 63.0°F sea, in exchange for a month with no national holiday week inside it. Both cases are worked through on the November page and the January page.

Is December a good time to visit Tampa?

Yes, for anyone whose Tampa happens on land. Trail days, river paddling, the Ybor streets, a cruise departure and a run up to the springs all work at 73.9°F with 3.6 wet days and zero tropical risk. No, if the vacation is built on Gulf swimming: 66.7°F water, measured as a mean of daily maxima and therefore flattering, will not carry a beach week for most American swimmers, and the 5:38 PM sunset shortens every beach afternoon.

When the answer is no, November is the month to shift to rather than January: 78.9°F days, 74.2°F water and 1.40 inches of rain against December’s 2.56. The trade is the hurricane calendar, which runs through November 30 and argues for refundable rates in the first three weeks. January solves nothing on the swimming front, since it drops another 3.7 degrees of sea surface to 63.0°F.

December is the first full month clear of hurricane season, and it still averages a 73.9°F afternoon, which January, at 71.3°F, does not.

The last word

Settle the dates before the hotel. The first three weeks are the quiet version of this trip and the holiday stretch is a different city on the same 73.9°F normals, and the distance between them matters more than the 2.6 degrees separating December from January. Seats are not the bottleneck: TPA boarded 12,075,591 passengers in calendar year 2024, an FAA large hub with schedule to spare. Book the night of the 24th first and build the rest of the week behind it.

Sources & data for this guide

• December normals, highs, lows, precipitation, rain days and freezing nights · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012842 (Tampa International Airport) · checked Sep 13, 2026
• November and January normals used in the comparison table · same NOAA station and period · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Sea surface 66.7°F, 74.2°F and 63.0°F, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Daylight 10h 25m, sunrise 7:12 AM and sunset 5:38 PM Eastern on December 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted from UTC · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Hurricane season dates and September 10 peak · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 13, 2026
• 6.0% county transient rental tax with the 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Parking spaces, launches, trail miles and the 311 feet of boardwalk · Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Recreational Facilities Inventory, 2024 annual report · checked Sep 13, 2026
• 12,075,591 boardings in CY2024 and large-hub classification · FAA passenger boarding data · checked Sep 13, 2026
• Eight vessels from five cruise lines · Port Tampa Bay cruise page · checked Sep 13, 2026
• What we could not read, stated plainly: transit fares, park entrance fees and gate hours. The operators’ pages returned errors or would not render for us on Sep 11, 2026, so no fare and no admission price appears above.