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Warmest sea temperatures in Europe in December: ranked by sea temperature

La Laguna tops the list at 21 °C in December. Ranked from 1991–2020 climate normals across 50 destinations in Europe.

Top three in December: La Laguna (21 °C) , Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (21 °C) , Limassol (20 °C) . Between first and 50th place the sea temp differs by 8.9 °C.

# Destination Country Sea temp Avg high Avg low Rainfall Wet days Sunshine Sea temp
1 La Laguna Spain 21 °C 17 °C 14 °C 52 mm 8 294 h 21 °C
2 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain 21 °C 20 °C 16 °C 35 mm 6 298 h 21 °C
3 Limassol Cyprus 20 °C 17 °C 11 °C 59 mm 8 262 h 20 °C
4 Nicosia Cyprus 19 °C 17 °C 9.1 °C 53 mm 8 257 h 19 °C
5 Valletta Malta 18 °C 16 °C 14 °C 70 mm 10 253 h 18 °C
6 Pátra Greece 17 °C 13 °C 6.8 °C 132 mm 13 214 h 17 °C
7 Athens Greece 17 °C 13 °C 7.0 °C 64 mm 8 210 h 17 °C
8 Messina Italy 17 °C 15 °C 10 °C 134 mm 15 229 h 17 °C
9 Naples Italy 17 °C 13 °C 7.0 °C 134 mm 12 204 h 17 °C
10 Jerez de la Frontera Spain 17 °C 17 °C 7.9 °C 80 mm 7 241 h 17 °C
11 Catania Italy 17 °C 15 °C 9.0 °C 66 mm 8 228 h 17 °C
12 Palermo Italy 17 °C 15 °C 10 °C 72 mm 11 237 h 17 °C
13 Reggio Calabria Italy 17 °C 14 °C 8.6 °C 152 mm 15 229 h 17 °C
14 Palma Spain 17 °C 15 °C 11 °C 38 mm 6 242 h 17 °C
15 Gibraltar Gibraltar 17 °C 16 °C 11 °C 116 mm 10 245 h 17 °C
16 Cartagena Spain 16 °C 16 °C 11 °C 25 mm 4 255 h 16 °C
17 Durrës Albania 16 °C 13 °C 8.1 °C 154 mm 13 211 h 16 °C
18 Almería Spain 16 °C 17 °C 9.0 °C 29 mm 4 267 h 16 °C
19 Elche Spain 16 °C 16 °C 7.5 °C 23 mm 4 249 h 16 °C
20 Alicante Spain 16 °C 16 °C 9.0 °C 32 mm 5 248 h 16 °C
21 Marbella Spain 16 °C 15 °C 10 °C 115 mm 9 241 h 16 °C
22 Málaga Spain 16 °C 16 °C 11 °C 69 mm 7 243 h 16 °C
23 Lisbon Portugal 16 °C 14 °C 10 °C 79 mm 9 224 h 16 °C
24 Valencia Spain 16 °C 15 °C 7.8 °C 35 mm 5 237 h 16 °C
25 Castelló de la Plana Spain 16 °C 15 °C 7.4 °C 35 mm 5 234 h 16 °C
26 Taranto Italy 16 °C 13 °C 7.8 °C 66 mm 8 219 h 16 °C
27 Genoa Italy 16 °C 10 °C 4.9 °C 126 mm 10 169 h 16 °C
28 Livorno Italy 16 °C 12 °C 6.7 °C 88 mm 11 198 h 16 °C
29 Nice France 15 °C 12 °C 6.2 °C 83 mm 8 216 h 15 °C
30 Monaco Monaco 15 °C 12 °C 6.3 °C 83 mm 8 216 h 15 °C
31 Toulon France 15 °C 12 °C 7.2 °C 68 mm 7 217 h 15 °C
32 Thessaloníki Greece 15 °C 10 °C 3.1 °C 70 mm 8 191 h 15 °C
33 Sabadell Spain 15 °C 12 °C 4.3 °C 40 mm 5 225 h 15 °C
34 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat Spain 15 °C 13 °C 6.1 °C 40 mm 5 226 h 15 °C
35 Barcelona Spain 15 °C 13 °C 6.1 °C 42 mm 6 227 h 15 °C
36 Bari Italy 15 °C 13 °C 8.6 °C 60 mm 9 209 h 15 °C
37 Marseille France 15 °C 12 °C 6.3 °C 54 mm 7 220 h 15 °C
38 Vigo Spain 14 °C 13 °C 7.2 °C 224 mm 15 191 h 14 °C
39 Porto Portugal 14 °C 14 °C 7.5 °C 171 mm 12 203 h 14 °C
40 Santander Spain 14 °C 13 °C 6.7 °C 114 mm 14 191 h 14 °C
41 A Coruña Spain 14 °C 13 °C 8.3 °C 142 mm 14 181 h 14 °C
42 Bilbao Spain 14 °C 13 °C 7.8 °C 106 mm 14 181 h 14 °C
43 Montpellier France 14 °C 11 °C 5.1 °C 77 mm 9 209 h 14 °C
44 Oviedo Spain 14 °C 12 °C 3.8 °C 104 mm 13 186 h 14 °C
45 Gijón Spain 14 °C 13 °C 6.8 °C 117 mm 14 195 h 14 °C
46 Donostia / San Sebastián Spain 14 °C 12 °C 7.3 °C 142 mm 15 174 h 14 °C
47 San Marino San Marino 13 °C 6.7 °C -0.2 °C 85 mm 11 178 h 13 °C
48 Trieste Italy 13 °C 8.2 °C 2.2 °C 128 mm 10 160 h 13 °C
49 Sochi Russia 13 °C 9.9 °C 4.2 °C 148 mm 14 172 h 13 °C
50 Saint Peter Port Guernsey 12 °C 11 °C 8.7 °C 122 mm 17 141 h 12 °C

Monthly values for the month named in the ranking; only destinations with a published climate page are ranked. Download this ranking as CSV.

The same ranking one month earlier and later

November: top 5

  1. Limassol 22 °C
  2. La Laguna 22 °C
  3. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 22 °C
  4. Nicosia 22 °C
  5. Valletta 21 °C

Full ranking for November

January: top 5

  1. La Laguna 20 °C
  2. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 20 °C
  3. Limassol 18 °C
  4. Nicosia 17 °C
  5. Valletta 16 °C

Full ranking for January

How this ranking is built

What is ranked
The average sea surface temperature at the coast, in °C, in December, highest first.
Period
1991–2020 climate normals: the same 30 years for every destination, so the list compares like with like.
Who is included
50 destinations in Europe with a published climate page. Neighbouring places that share a climate series are shown once.
Ties
Equal values are ordered by beach score.
Sources
ERA5 / ERA5-Land reanalysis via Open-Meteo; sea temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1. Measured values are reproduced unchanged; only the ordering is ours.

Data sources and method

Normal period
1991–2020
Dataset version
era5-1991-2020-scores1.1
Last processed

Measured values come from ERA5 reanalysis and are reproduced unchanged. Calculated by us: ranking order, beach and comfort scores. Full formulas are on the methodology page.

Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.