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Sunniest Places in British Columbia

Annual sunshine hours from ECCC Climate Normals 1991–2020, ranked within British Columbia. The BC interior and Okanagan dominate the sunshine rankings over the rainy coast.

Scope: British Columbia Communities ranked: ~180 BC FSAs Showing: Top 20 in BC (most sunshine) Data: ECCC Climate Normals 1991–2020
Okanagan leads BC; Victoria outperforms Metro Vancouver: Penticton leads all BC communities with 2,300 annual sunshine hours. The Okanagan Valley (Penticton, Kelowna, Lake Country, West Kelowna) claims the top 6 spots. Victoria's neighbourhoods (2,193–2,210 hrs) outperform Metro Vancouver (1,938 hrs) by over 250 hours annually — a significant advantage for both quality of life and solar potential. Kamloops, despite being Interior rather than coastal, ties Victoria at 2,210 hours, showing that BC's sunshine advantage extends well beyond the Okanagan. Metro Vancouver's 1,938 annual sunshine hours places it near the bottom of BC communities for sunshine. The North Coast (Prince Rupert: ~1,200 hrs) is the cloudiest region in BC.
# Community Sunshine Hours
1 PentictonBC 2,300 hrs
2 Okanagan Mission / Kelowna SouthBC 2,290 hrs
3 Lake Country / Kelowna EastBC 2,280 hrs
4 West Kelowna South / WestbankBC 2,270 hrs
5 Kelowna — DowntownBC 2,260 hrs
6 Kelowna - SouthBC 2,250 hrs
7 Victoria - GonzalesBC 2,210 hrs
8 Saanich - Cordova BayBC 2,210 hrs
9 Kamloops - NorthBC 2,210 hrs
10 Kamloops - SouthBC 2,210 hrs
11 Kamloops - EastBC 2,210 hrs
12 Kamloops - WestBC 2,210 hrs
13 Victoria - FairfieldBC 2,200 hrs
14 Parksville / Qualicum BeachBC 2,200 hrs
15 Kelowna - NorthBC 2,200 hrs
16 Kelowna - CentralBC 2,200 hrs
17 Keremeos / South Okanagan RuralBC 2,200 hrs
18 Kamloops SouthBC 2,200 hrs
19 Victoria — DowntownBC 2,193 hrs
20 Victoria - Fort StreetBC 2,193 hrs

Annual sunshine hours from ECCC Climate Normals 1991–2020. Data assigned to FSA from the nearest reporting climate station. Source: ECCC open government licence.