Sunniest Cities in Canada
Prairie cities lead the list of major Canadian cities with the most sunshine. Calgary is the sunniest city in Canada, with an average of 2405 hours of sun a year, spread over 333 days.
Not every weather station keeps track of when the sun shines, so the data comparisons are limited to those cities that record their hours of sunshine.
Calgary isn't situated far from Canada's sunniest spot, Manyberries, in the southeast corner of Alberta. The hamlet averages 2567 hours of sun a year, accounting for 55% of its daylight.
Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon are close behind Calgary, all topping 2300 hours of sunshine annually. For these prairie cities, the sun shines during at least half the daylight hours.
Meanwhile, the cloudiest cities are scattered along the east and west coasts and in central Canada. St. John's, Newfoundland stands out as Canada's large city with the least amount of sun. It gets just over 1500 hours a year, making up one-third of daylight hours.
Still, St. John's is much sunnier than one of Canada's cloudiest places, Stewart, a coastal town in northern British Columbia. Stewart receives only 982 hours of sun a year on average, scattered over 228 days. Clouds block the sun in Stewart for 80% of the time.
| City | Hours | % Daylight | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calgary | 2405 | 53 | 333 |
| Winnipeg | 2372 | 51 | 318 |
| Regina | 2338 | 50 | 321 |
| Saskatoon | 2329 | 50 | 320 |
| Edmonton | 2299 | 49 | 321 |
| Victoria | 2193 | 46 | 317 |
| Hamilton | 2088 | 45 | 302 |
| Ottawa | 2061 | 45 | 303 |
| Toronto | 2038 | 44 | 303 |
| Montreal | 2029 | 44 | 304 |
| Kingston | 1992 | 43 | 299 |
| Vancouver | 1928 | 40 | 289 |
| Quebec | 1905 | 41 | 291 |
| London | 1800 | 38 | 288 |
| St. John's | 1512 | 33 | 270 |
Hours = average number of hours of bright sunshine a year.
% Daylight = percentage of daylight hours that are sunny.
Days = average number of days a year with some bright sunshine.