Tenerife in December
Around 20.5 °C by day, sea 21.4 °C. Warm enough to swim. As busy as the peak.
December on Tenerife is not a warm winter — it is an ordinary mild day: around 20.1 °C, sea at 21.4 °C. You can swim — as you can anywhere in the Canaries, which hold 21.4 °C in December. The mainland coast is down to 13.5–17.6 °C by then, which is the difference between a swim and a paddle.
The thing to know about the island is that north and south are different places. Puerto de la Cruz in the north has 55 rainy days a year and 72% humidity — cloud comes off the ocean, catches on the mountain and sits there. Adeje in the south has 18 rainy days and 60% humidity, and the island's most expensive square metre. Two hours apart, and December is when the difference shows most.
Towns nearby in December
| Town | Air | Sea | Busy | Winter | €/m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | 20.5 | 21.4 | 3/5 | 5/5 | 2 100 |
| Puerto de la Cruz | 18.5 | 21.5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 2 200 |
| Adeje / Costa Adeje | 20.5 | 21.5 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 3 400 |
The winter column is a 1-to-5 estimate: are places open, does transport run, is anyone about between November and March. Tourists never notice; anyone who moved does.
Rain days and humidity are annual here, not monthly: 32 rainy days a year, 66% humidity in winter. We have no monthly normals yet and will not invent a split.