Month by month
Queen Elizabeth in December
December dries out as it goes, from 188 mm in November to 70 mm across four rain days. UWA counts it as a dry month, which is a generous reading, and the holiday fortnight makes it the most expensive two weeks of the year.
If you only want the answer
December averages 70 mm over four rain days, a sharp improvement on November's 188 mm and still wetter than August, which UWA classes as a wet month. The full Aerolink schedule is back, the tracks firm up through the month, and the Christmas and New Year fortnight carries surcharges on top of high-season rates.
Queen Elizabeth weather in December: drying out, week by week
The drop from November to December is 118 mm, the second largest month-on-month fall in the calendar after the 157 mm collapse from May into June. Rain days fall from eight to four. The park spends the month improving, so the last week of December is materially better for driving than the first.
That gradient is worth planning around. A trip landing on 3 December and a trip landing on 27 December are not the same trip, even though both sit under a single monthly average of 70 mm. If the dates are flexible within the month, later is better on every measure except price.
UWA calls December dry and August wet
UWA's management plan, reading its Mweya weather station, names March, April, May and August to November as the wet months and says the rest are dry with the driest being January and February. December therefore sits inside UWA's dry group at 70 mm, while August sits in the wet group at 53 mm. On the thirty-year normals, December is the wetter of the two by 17 mm.
This is not a reason to distrust UWA. It is a reason to stop treating any single seasonal label as a forecast in a park where the driest month of the year still produces 18 mm and the wettest produces 339 mm. Read the monthly figures, decide what you can live with, and treat the season names as shorthand.
The most expensive fortnight of the year
December is high season at every camp here that publishes one. Ishasha Wilderness Camp counts January, February, July, August, September and December. Elephant Plains runs July, August, September and December, at $600 per person full board against $350 in its low season. On top of that, the holiday period carries its own premium: Katara Lodge, for example, adds $20 per person from 22 December to 2 January.
UWA charges the same as always. Entry is $40 per person per 24 hours, the ticket runs 24 hours from the time of entrance rather than to midnight, and the Kazinga Channel launch is $30 per person. Two prices do change with the calendar rather than the season: the Kyambura chimpanzee permit rises from $100 to $200 on 1 January 2027, and lion tracking rises from $200 to $500 on the same date. A trip in December 2026 is the last window at the current rates.