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Typical December weather

Yellowstone

Wyoming · December

Snowcoach season opens and the geyser basins go otherworldly.

30° days
12° nights

about 10 snowy days · 9 hours of daylight

What to pack

What December feels like

Oversnow travel starts around mid-December and it is a completely different park — steam freezing into rime on the lodgepoles, bison pushing through drifts with their heads. Everything has to be booked and guided, so this is not a month for improvising; the payoff is Old Faithful with a couple dozen people watching instead of a couple thousand.

Winter is doing its thing: 12.6 in of snow in a typical December, with fresh snow on about 10 days. Nearly every night dips below freezing.

The numbers

Typical high30°
Typical low12°
Days with snow10
Rain and melted snow0.9 in
Snowfall12.6 in
Sunrise / sunset (mid-month)7:54 am / 4:41 pm

How December compares

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