Bahamas in December

I was wondering if I could get the input from the well seasoned cruisers about the weather in December in the Bahamas. I've looked at the weather treads, the average is about 78. How does that 78 feel? Is it humid, is it dry, is it cool? Was it warm enough to go into the water?

Well, it depends:

It is relatively dry. It feels warmer than a typical home inside temp for pretty well all of the US - I would guess the average winter heating temp setting is 69-75 deg. We went on a cruise in Dec 2017 to the Bahamas, and we were comfortable, not cold, not sweating to death.

But of course, it varies, due to cold fronts. Can be a bit colder.

For northerners, it is probably more than warm enough to swim. For me, living in Central Florida, where my pool gets to 85 deg by May, 95 deg by July (yay for solar water heating on the roof!), it is "too dang cold".

It's kind of like the weather in S Florida - it could be 83° today and 60° a couple of days later. I lived in Nassau when I was younger. I know I got a new snorkel for Christmas and spent that afternoon at the beach trying it out. We also had some very cold (well, cold for Nassau) weather a couple of weeks later, too cold for the clothing we had.

So I guess the answer is - it depends on the day. Most likely you would have a decent beach day. Water temps should be in the mid 70's.

I'm a diver and never go to the Bahamas November-March, to me freezing.

If you live in the Northeast or Northwest, or even around the Great Lakes, your summer water temps are probably lower than the winter temps in the Bahamas. EM

We cruised to the Bahamas once in the 2nd week of January (closest to December I've ever been in Bahamas). It was in the 50s & 60s every day, cold wind, gray & dreary every day but 1. I definitely didn't bring enough warm clothes for that weather, living in Florida. But we got home, and it was 85, sunny and beautiful one day later!

So the bottom line is, it depends... most of the time I think you'll find it's lovely & warm, especially if you're coming from the north. But you can't guarantee that. As far as the water temp, I agree with Coevan- too cold for me and I grew up in Canada, where I was used to swimming in 68 degree temp lakes all summer- but now that I'm from the south, no way... too cold for me!

We were in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving this past year and it was gorgeous outside. About 80 degrees not real humid. The water was nice once you got in but did have a little chill initially but nothing bad

I too was in the Bahamas this past December, as well as a few other December’s in the past. The weather has always been warm, sunny and the water is fine once you are in for a minute.

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We were there from 12/28-1/2 for our New Years cruise and it was beautiful outside! Nice cool breeze but the sun was out. I didn't do anything in the water because I already knew it would be too cold for me. Like others who have replied, I'm from and live in south Florida so any water temps under 75 is cold to me lol

We were in the Bahamas in late December and the temp was around 78 deg. It was real nice. We went to the beach one day and did not do much more than put our feet in the water. That said, there were people who went in. Also, we had friends there the following week who told us it was about 10 deg cooler.

Keep in mind ... the water will be very chilly.

We are tough Great Lakes folks and you could barely pry us out of the ocean in December of 16. But it was in the mid 80s and sunny.

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