December settles Iowa into winter — short days, long nights, frozen ground, and snow across the open country. Wintering eagles crowd the river dams, feeder flocks gather, and the Christmas Bird Count takes to the field. The longest nights of the year bring the brilliant winter stars overhead.
Week by week in December
December 3–9
- The winter feeder community is fully settled — chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, juncos, and woodpeckers work the seed through the cold.
- Orion climbs the southeast with the Orion Nebula glowing in his sword, and the Winter Hexagon of bright stars sprawls across the heavens.
- Holiday winter markets offer Christmas trees, wreaths, redcedar boughs, honey, and the cured storage harvest.
December 10–16
- The Geminid meteor shower — one of the best of the year — peaks around December 14, with dozens of bright meteors an hour from a dark site.
- The Christmas Bird Count season begins, sending birders across Iowa to tally wintering eagles, hawks, and feeder flocks.
- Eastern redcedars and the wild Christmas trees of the fencerows define the green of the winter landscape under the snow.
December 17–23
- The winter solstice near December 21 brings the year's longest nights, the cold, dry air making for superb, crystal-clear stargazing.
- Rough-legged hawks and northern harriers hunt the snowy fields, and in irruption years snowy owls turn up on open farmland.
- Indoors, amaryllis and forced paperwhites bloom on the windowsills while the frozen prairie sleeps under the snow.
December 24–31
- Hundreds of bald eagles fish the churning tailwater below the Mississippi dams, closing the bird year as it began — at the river's open water.
- The brilliant winter sky is at its finest, with Orion, Sirius, the Pleiades, and the Winter Hexagon riding high through the long dark nights.
- Pure planning season — review the year's notes, order seeds, and dream over next year's beds while the real ground rests under snow.
Birds This Month
December is full winter birding in Iowa, centered on feeders, fields, and the rivers. The winter community is settled in: black-capped chickadees, white- and red-breasted nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, northern cardinals, dark-eyed juncos, American tree sparrows, and blue jays work the feeders, and in irruption years common redpolls, pine siskins, and red-breasted nuthatches add to the mix.
The bald eagle spectacle is in full swing — birds concentrate at the open water below the Mississippi locks and dams at Keokuk and Le Claire and below the inland river dams, fishing the churning tailwater. Rough-legged hawks and northern harriers hunt the snowy fields, snowy owls turn up in irruption years, and the Christmas Bird Count sends birders out across the state to tally the winter birds.
This month's tip: join or watch a local Christmas Bird Count, a century-old tradition, and keep feeders full and a heated birdbath open through the cold — December birds rely on a steady food and water source most when the temperatures plunge.
What's Blooming
Nothing blooms outdoors in an Iowa December — the ground is frozen and snow-covered, and the next wildflowers are four months away. The landscape's interest now lies in its winter structure: the bright red stems of red-osier dogwood in the wet ditches, the persistent red berries of winterberry holly and hawthorn, the powder-blue cones of female eastern redcedars, and the tan, rattling seed heads of the prairie — compass plant, coneflowers, and the great bluestem grasses — standing through the snow.
This is the season the indoor garden takes over: amaryllis and forced paperwhites bloom on windowsills, poinsettias and holiday cactus add color, and evergreen boughs, redcedar, and bittersweet bring the outdoor structure inside for the holidays. The catalog-and-planning weeks begin, as Iowa gardeners dream over next year's beds while the real ground sleeps under the snow.
Garden This Month
December gardening in Iowa happens indoors and on paper. The beds are frozen and snow-covered statewide, so the outdoor work is purely protective: leave snow as insulating cover over perennials, the strawberry bed, and fall-planted bulbs and garlic, and gently brush heavy, wet snow off evergreen and arborvitae branches to prevent breakage. Check that tree-trunk guards are protecting young bark from hungry rabbits and from the sunscald that strikes the south side of trunks on bright, cold days.
Indoors, this is reflection and planning season — review the year's garden notes, order seed catalogs, force amaryllis and paperwhites for winter color, and tend houseplants through the low light. Check any stored dahlia tubers, canna roots, and bulbs for rot, and keep tools cleaned and oiled. The hardest, darkest stretch of the gardening year is also the most restful — a time to dream over the beds that spring will reopen.
Zone 4b (far north Iowa): the garden is fully dormant under snow — leave drifts in place as insulation over perennials and bulbs, and keep heavy wet snow knocked gently off evergreens and arborvitae to prevent breakage.
Zone 5a (central Iowa): nothing to do outdoors but protect — confirm that mulch and snow are covering marginal perennials, check stored tubers and bulbs for rot, and watch for rabbit damage on young tree bark.
Zone 5b (southern Iowa): the mildest tier is dormant too; a stray cold-frame green may still hold, but mostly this is planning season — order seeds and review what worked, while protecting trees from winter sunscald on the south side.
What's at the Farmers Market
December's Iowa markets are the winter and holiday markets, indoors in the cities and at on-farm stands. The storage harvest carries the season: storage onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, cabbage, and winter squash, all cured for keeping. Frost-sweetened kale, Brussels sprouts, and spinach from hoop houses are at their best, and the last stored apples and pears remain.
The holiday season adds its own offerings: Christmas trees, wreaths, and evergreen and redcedar boughs cut from Iowa tree farms, along with honey, maple syrup from spring's run, jams and canned goods, eggs, frozen meats, and baked goods. Choose firm, heavy roots and squash, store roots cool and humid and squash cool and dry, and they will keep through the coldest, darkest stretch of the Iowa year toward the spring still months away.
Night Sky This Month
December brings Iowa its longest nights of the year around the winter solstice near December 21, and the cold, dry air makes for superb, crystal-clear stargazing if you can bear the cold. The brilliant winter sky is on full display: Orion climbs the southeast with the Orion Nebula glowing in his sword, his belt pointing down to brilliant Sirius, and the Winter Hexagon of bright stars — Sirius, Procyon, the Gemini twins, Capella, Aldebaran, and Rigel — sprawls across the heavens.
The Geminid meteor shower, one of the best of the entire year, peaks around December 14, often producing dozens of bright, slow meteors an hour from a dark site like the Loess Hills ridgetops. The Pleiades and the orange eye of Taurus ride high, and the faint winter Milky Way arches overhead through Auriga on the clearest, darkest nights.
Exact Geminid timing and planet positions vary year to year — the printable Iowa night-sky guide gives the current details for your location.
Butterflies & Pollinators
There are no butterflies on the wing in an Iowa December — the cold and snow have ended all activity, and the landscape is fully locked in winter. The summer's butterflies endure the season in their hidden, dormant forms. The monarchs that streamed south in autumn now cluster by the millions in the oyamel fir forests of central Mexico, packed onto the trees in a state of cold-induced torpor, conserving energy through the winter until the lengthening days of spring send their descendants north again.
Iowa's own species wait out the deep freeze close to home. Mourning cloaks, eastern commas, and question marks hibernate as adults tucked behind loose bark, in woodpiles, and in unheated buildings, their tissues protected by natural antifreeze. The regal fritillary overwinters as a minute caterpillar deep in the prairie thatch, and countless other species rest as chrysalises and eggs anchored to dead stems beneath the snow — the whole butterfly fauna dormant, waiting for the return of warmth.
Trees This Month
Iowa's deciduous trees are fully dormant in December, their bare structure stark against the snow and gray sky. The broad crowns of the bur oaks, the shaggy shagbark hickories, the white-mottled sycamores along the streams, and the smooth, sinewy gray American hornbeams (blue beech) of the moist southeast ravines stand revealed, and the marcescent young oaks and ironwoods hold their tan, dead leaves rattling in the wind.
The eastern redcedars come into their own now, their dense dark-green foliage and powder-blue cones the only widespread evergreen across the Iowa countryside — vital winter cover and food for birds, and the traditional source of many an Iowa Christmas tree and holiday bough. The white and Scotch pines of plantings and tree farms add their green as well, but it is the wild redcedar of the fencerows and pastures that defines the green of an Iowa winter landscape.
Weather & Daylight
Across Iowa, a typical December day averages a high near 33°F and a low near 17°F, with about 1.4 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Firmly wintry, highs in the low 33s and lows near 17, with dry, cold air settling over shorter, quieter days.
| Average high | 33°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 17°F |
| Precipitation | 1.4 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:35 CT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 16:43 CT |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (CT).
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One short note when Iowa's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
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Same month elsewhere: December in Kansas · December in Kentucky · December in Louisiana