Which Saskatoon neighbourhoods get the most winter sun?

The short answer

Among 51 established Saskatoon neighbourhoods in LandMood's model, 12 get a median of 2 hours or more of direct sun on December 21 along their residential streets, mostly newer suburbs, while five older central neighbourhoods (Buena Vista, Caswell Hill, City Park, Mayfair and Nutana) get under half an hour (typical year, 2016–2025).

The city-wide median is 1.3 h. These are medians of the ground along residential streets (boulevards, front yards and driveways as a band, never a single home), so they describe a neighbourhood, not a house. The difference between two homes on the same street is often bigger than the difference between two neighbourhoods. To see one home rather than a whole neighbourhood, place it on the free map.

The 12 Saskatoon neighbourhoods with the most December sun

Most of the top of the list are newer suburbs, where trees are younger and fewer of them stand over the street-side ground.

The 12 Saskatoon neighbourhoods with the least December sun

The bottom of the list is older central neighbourhoods, where mature trees and closely spaced homes shade the street-side ground for most of the short winter day.

Less sun, more snow in March

Snow follows the sun. Across all 51 neighbourhoods, the ranking for deep snow (20 cm or more) still on the ground in March is close to the reverse of the ranking for December sun. Each neighbourhood page shows its own snow and spring-melt numbers.

The bigger difference is between homes

A sunny neighbourhood does not make a sunny house. Even in the 12 sunniest neighbourhoods, about 30% of the street-side ground gets under half an hour of sun on December 21 (median of those neighbourhoods). In the 12 least sunny, about 35% still gets more than two hours.

What decides a single home is mostly which way it faces and what stands to its south: a north-facing front with a two-storey house or a tall spruce across the yard can sit in shade all winter in any neighbourhood. Read north-facing vs south-facing houses for what to look for at a viewing.

How these numbers are made

LandMood follows the sun hour by hour over 1-metre public lidar of the real houses and trees (Natural Resources Canada) with ten years of weather (2016–2025). For each neighbourhood we sampled the ground along residential streets and open ground away from buildings across the whole neighbourhood; new subdivisions where the lidar predates the houses are left out. Values are rounded to the nearest half hour. The Saskatoon neighbourhoods page lists all 51 with their sun, snow and spring-melt numbers.