Yellowknife (NT) Sunshine Hours by Month

To truly understand a climate, we must look at its sunshine. This page shows the total number of hours of direct sunlight per month and the average hours per day in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Long-term data from 1990 to 2020 was used to calculate these averages.

Monthly hours of sunshine

Seasonal sunshine in Yellowknife varies. It peaks at 373 hours in June and drops to 24 hours in December. The total annual amount of sun is 2251 hours.

Daily hours of sunshine

Seasonal changes in sunshine hours are quite obvious in Yellowknife. While June receives considerable daily sunshine with up to 12.4 hours, December marks the darkest time of the year, where sunshine is scarce with only 0.8 hours of sunlight per day.

Average percent of sunshine

On average the sun shines 63% of the time during the day in June, the highest percentage of any month. December has the lowest percentage at 15%.

Yellowknife enjoys an average of 2251 hours of sunshine annually. Let’s compare this with some popular tourist destinations:

In Lisbon, Portugal, there are approximately 2801 hours of sunshine annually, highlighting its warm and sunny Mediterranean climate.

Manchester, UK, experiences just around 1420 hours of sunshine annually.

In Shanghai, China, the annual average sunshine is 1780 hours, with cloudier weather in summer.

Perth, Australia, enjoys 3180 hours of sunshine annually, the highest among major Australian cities.

August, Yellowknife’s wettest month, receives 38 mm (1.5 in) of rainfall and has a maximum daytime temperature of 19°C (66°F). During the driest month February you can expect a temperature of -18°C (0°F).

For more detailed insights into the city’s temperatures, check out our Temperature page. To explore more about precipitation patterns, visit our Yellowknife Precipitation page.