Otaru in December:
freezing cold, snow almost daily

Early winter, with snow settling in and many days of rain or snow. Dusk comes early, so start canal sightseeing sooner. The evening lights on the snowy canal are at their most atmospheric.

The afternoon high rarely climbed far above freezing: 1°C by day and −4°C at night. Precipitation came so often (22 days on average) that dry stretches were short and worth using. At 1°C by day, a good share of the wet days were snow days, so the rain-day count includes fresh snow and the totals count it as melted water. A visitor in 2007 met 15 precipitation days; one in 2014 met 27. The average of 22 hid that gap.

With as little as 9.0 hours of daylight, the sightseeing day was short and dinner came after dark. 29 nights a month dropped below freezing on average. Gloves earned their place for early starts. Cold snaps happened: the record low for December was −12.6°C, set in 2020.