Season guide · San Francisco · United States
San Francisco in winter
December–February: weather, crowds, prices and the best things to do this time of year.
Updated By the AMZBooking editorial team
Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0
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Quick answer
Cool and wet with clear days between storms, green hills, Lunar New Year and some of the lowest hotel rates of the year. Expect highs up to 16°C (61°F) and lows around 8°C (46°F), with about 31 rainy days across December–February.
Key facts
- Months
- December–February
- Temperatures
- 8°C (46°F) to 16°C (61°F)
- Rainy days in the season
- About 31
- Sea
- 12°C (54°F) to 13°C (55°F)
- Crowds
- Quiet
- Hotel prices
- Average
Weather in winter
| Month | High | Low | Rainy days | Daylight | Crowds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 14°C (57°F) | 8°C (46°F) | 11 | 9.8 h | 2/5 |
| February | 16°C (61°F) | 9°C (48°F) | 10 | 10.7 h | 2/5 |
| December | 14°C (57°F) | 8°C (46°F) | 10 | 9.6 h | 3/5 |
Compared with the rest of the year: average highs of 15°C (59°F) against a yearly 19°C (66°F), and 31 of the year's roughly 59 rainy days fall in these 3 months. Crowds rate 2/5 and hotel prices 3/5 on average.
What's on in winter
Recurring events; dates move from year to year, so confirm with the organiser.
- January: Lunar New Year celebrations begin (late January or February)
- February: Chinese New Year Festival and Parade in Chinatown and around Union Square (usually February)
- December: Holiday tree and ice rink at Union Square (usually mid-November to early January)
Good choices for winter
Museum · Golden Gate Park
California Academy of Sciences
Under a living roof planted with native wildflowers, the Academy combines an aquarium with a Philippine coral reef, a four-storey rainforest dome with free-flying butterflies, the Morrison Planetarium, African penguins and a natural history museum.
- Time needed
- 3 hours
- Cost
- Expensive
- Kids
- Rainy day
- Nature
Museum · Golden Gate Park
de Young Museum
Even without a museum ticket, ride up the free observation tower for a 360-degree view over the park and the Pacific.
- Time needed
- 2 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Art
- Views
- Rainy day
- Architecture
Museum · Embarcadero
Exploratorium
On Pier 15, the Exploratorium fills a waterfront shed with hundreds of hands-on exhibits on science, perception and art, from a fog bridge to the pitch-dark Tactile Dome.
- Time needed
- 3 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Kids
- Rainy day
- After dark
Gallery · SoMa
SFMOMA
The ground-floor galleries are free; Yerba Buena Gardens across Third Street is a good spot for a break.
- Time needed
- 2–3 hours
- Cost
- Mid-priced
- Art
- Rainy day
- Architecture
Experience · Fisherman's Wharf
Musée Mécanique
A large private collection of coin-operated machines fills a shed on Pier 45: antique arcade games, mechanical fortune tellers, player pianos and the cackling Laughing Sal.
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Cost
- Free
- Kids
- Free
- Rainy day
- Off the beaten path
Day trips in winter
- Muir Woods (About 40 minutes by car) — Old-growth coast redwoods, some more than 75 metres tall and many centuries old, line the boardwalk trails of Muir Woods National Monument at the foot of Mount Tamalpais.
- Sausalito (About 30 minutes by ferry) — This hillside waterfront town across the Golden Gate has galleries, waterfront restaurants and a colony of colourful houseboats.
What to pack
- Layers, a warm sweater and a jacket for cool evenings
- A packable rain jacket for showers
- Comfortable walking shoes
Other times of year
Questions travellers ask
+Is winter a good time to visit San Francisco?
It is a trade-off: Cool and wet with clear days between storms, green hills, Lunar New Year and some of the lowest hotel rates of the year. The best months overall are April–May and September–October.
+What is the weather like in San Francisco in winter?
Highs of up to 16°C (61°F) and lows around 8°C (46°F), with about 31 rainy days over the season.