Kirkwall Temperature by Month
Kirkwall in Orkney Islands, United Kingdom enjoys a stable climate, with daytime temperatures staying close to 11°C (52°F) throughout the year. Explore the full monthly breakdown below.
Kirkwall Monthly Temperatures
Year-round, Kirkwall experiences a consistently chilly climate. Maximum daytime temperatures range from a moderate 15°C (59°F) in August to a chilly 8°C (46°F) in the coolest month, February. Nighttime temperatures range from 12°C (54°F) in August to 5°C (41°F) in February.
The chart below illustrates the average maximum day and minimum night temperatures in Kirkwall by month:
The coolest part of the day is typically between 4 AM and 6 AM, while 3 PM is usually the warmest, when solar heating is at its peak. August, the city's warmest month, averages 127 hours of sunshine.
The chart below shows the average temperature throughout the year:
Temperature: Kirkwall vs the United Kingdom
The map below shows the annual temperature across the United Kingdom. You can also select individual months if you want to compare a specific time of year.
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Kirkwall vs World: Temperature Compared
Kirkwall's average annual maximum temperature is 11°C (52°F). To put that in context, here's how it compares to a few well-known destinations:
Lisbon, Portugal averages 21°C (70°F) annually — warm summers, mild winters, and rain mainly in the cooler months.
Glasgow, Scotland averages 13°C (55°F) a year — mild but often grey, with cold winters and rarely hot summers.
Seoul, South Korea averages 18°C (64°F) a year, with four clear seasons, cold winters, and hot humid summers.
Tokyo, Japan averages 21°C (70°F) a year, with hot summers, cool winters, and a well-defined cherry blossom spring.
Climate temperature data is typically calculated as a 30-year average. This smooths out year-to-year variability and gives a more reliable picture of what a place is actually like, rather than what happened in any single unusual year.
The readings come from a range of sources — land-based weather stations, ocean buoys, ships, and satellites. That data is collected by weather services around the world, then pooled, quality-checked, and averaged to produce the climate records you see here.
For cities and regions with significant elevation, altitude is one of the biggest factors shaping local temperatures. As a rule of thumb, temperatures fall by around 6°C for every 1,000 metres gained — so a city at 2,000 metres will typically be around 12°C cooler than a city at sea level in the same region. Higher ground also tends to see more dramatic day-to-night temperature swings, since thinner air loses heat faster after sunset.
For more on Kirkwall's weather — including monthly rainfall, sunshine hours, and humidity — visit our Kirkwall climate page.
