Where to Spend the Southern Summer: Nine City Bases, December to March

What does "southern summer" mean for a city base?

Most pages on this topic are about beaches or single cities. This page is for people who want a city base from December to March: somewhere with cafés, coworking, an airport and a normal week, in the weeks when the north is cold. We compare nine cities we hold data for: Perth, Cape Town, Sydney, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Florianópolis.

The top results we read are either lists of nomad cities with one line of climate each ("Mediterranean-style climate"), or cost tables with a climate label. None compares the southern cities month by month, which is the thing that changes the decision. The strip shows the rain in each city through the whole year, with the southern summer ringed:

Read it by row. Perth and Cape Town are pale in the ringed months and wet in winter. Sydney goes the other way and is at its wettest in the ringed months. São Paulo and Florianópolis are wet all through the summer. A rainy day is a day with at least two millimetres of rain (four in the tropics).

Where to be next: your month-by-month route, $19

A route for your months with a leave-by date for each stop, a backup, and the seasonal traps on your path. Drafted from 11 years of weather data, every number checked against it, in your inbox within 48 hours. Not included: visas, insurance or bookings.

See a sample plan Get my plan, $19

Which southern city is driest?

Perth, then Cape Town. Perth has about 1 rainy day in December and January, 2 in February and 3 in March, with 5 to 23 mm of rain a month, highs of 29° to 30° and the clearest skies of the nine. Cape Town has about 3 rainy days in December, 2 in January, 1 in February and 3 in March, and 14 to 34 mm of rain a month. Its highs are 24° to 26° and its nights 16° to 17°, so it is the cooler of the two dry cities. See the Cape Town best-time guide for the rest of the year.

Both pay in wind. Cape Town averages about 17 to 18 km/h from December to February and Perth about 19, against 13 to 14 in Sydney and 10 in São Paulo. Averages hide the gusty days, so expect some days when a terrace is not an option. Perth is also the hotter city, and the dry heat is part of the deal.

Which cities are mild, not hot?

The New Zealand cities. Christchurch has highs of 21° to 23° in December to February and 20° in March, with 5 to 7 rainy days a month and 47 to 61 mm of rain. It is the driest of the three New Zealand cities, and cool at night, 12° to 14°. Auckland has 22° to 23°, about 7 to 8 rainy days a month and a steady 80 to 86 mm of rain. Wellington is cooler at 19° to 20° and the windiest of the nine, at 22 to 24 km/h.

Pack layers for all three. Auckland and Wellington are the "showers" cities: moderate rain in total, but rain on about one day in four in Auckland and one day in five in Wellington in January and February.

Is Sydney humid, and when does it rain?

Sydney is the one that changes through the summer. December has 70 mm of rain on about 7 days. January has 118 mm and 10 days. February has 146 mm, and March has 183 mm on about 12 days. Humidity is 73 percent in December and 76 to 77 percent from January to March, and highs fall from 27° in January to 25° in March. If you want Sydney, December is the best month, and by March you are in the wettest month of the four, and the wettest of any city here outside Brazil.

Why is São Paulo harder than the rest?

It rains on 15 to 20 days of every month from December to March, with 161 mm in December, 228 mm in January and 241 mm in February. Humidity is 82 to 84 percent and cloud covers 69 to 77 percent of the sky. Highs are about 27°. That is the summer storm season: heat builds and breaks in the afternoon. Florianópolis, the island city nomads choose in Brazil, has a similar pattern, with 13 to 16 rainy days, 185 to 247 mm and warmer 28° to 29° highs in January and February. For a dry Brazilian summer, neither works. See Rio for the other Brazilian option.

Where does Buenos Aires fit?

Buenos Aires is the warm all-rounder: 25° to 29° highs, 5 to 7 rainy days in each month, 99 to 122 mm of rain, and 64 to 73 percent humidity. It is hotter and wetter than Cape Town and a little less windy, at about 15 to 16 km/h, and it has well under half of São Paulo's rainy days.

How do the nine compare in January?

January is the middle of the southern summer, so it is the fairest single month to put them next to each other:

Which city is best for each month?

December. Perth (1 rainy day, 5 mm) and Cape Town (about 3 days, 16 mm) are driest. Christchurch (7 days, 52 mm) is the mild option. Sydney is at its best this month, with 70 mm, before it gets wetter.

January. Perth and Cape Town again, with 8 and 14 mm. Christchurch is the driest of the New Zealand cities, at 47 mm.

February. Cape Town has 1 rainy day, 14 mm and 26°. Christchurch is the mild one at 23° with 5 rainy days.

March. Perth (23 mm) and Cape Town (34 mm) are still the driest, and their temperatures are starting to fall. Auckland is steady at 22° with 86 mm.

What does this change about the plan?

Our take: if the weather is the point, a December to March stay in the south is a Perth or Cape Town stay, and the rest are chosen for other reasons. If you want a cooler, greener base, pick Christchurch or Auckland and accept showers. Move Sydney to December and January and leave before March. Plan São Paulo and Florianópolis for the city or the surf, with an umbrella.

For the beach version of this question, with places chosen on warmth and dryness worldwide, see where is warm in January and where is warm in February. A nomad circuit that keeps you out of the wet is in the $19 plan.

Which city for what?

• Cape Town

  26° high in Jan14 mm in Jan2 rain days in Jan

  Dry and sunny all four months. The price is wind: about 18 km/h in January.

  Suits: dry weeks and a city with mountains and sea

• Christchurch

  23° high in Jan47 mm in Jan5 rain days in Jan

  The driest of the three New Zealand cities. Cool nights, 12° to 14°.

  Suits: a mild, green base with no heat to manage

• Sydney

  27° high in Jan118 mm in Jan10 rain days in Jan

  Best in December (70 mm) Wetter every month after that.

  Suits: december and January, then leave before March

• Buenos Aires

  29° high in Jan99 mm in Jan7 rain days in Jan

  Warm all-rounder, 25° to 29° highs. Well under half of São Paulo's rainy days.

  Suits: a big city with a warm, medium-rain summer