How many hours a year are good for a walk? Eight cities compared

Which city gives you the most chances to walk in comfortable daylight, and when should you go? Our own test of ten years of hourly weather data finds that rainier cities like Seattle and London offer more "walkable" daylight hours than sunbaked Phoenix, and Miami comes last by a wide margin. The best times to walk shift by city and season, but early mornings in summer and afternoons in winter are your best bet in most places[1].

How many walkable daylight hours does each city get?

Based on our 2026-10-30 analysis of ten years of hourly weather for eight major cities, a "walkable" hour is defined here as a daylight hour with apparent temperature between 5°C and 26°C, no rain, and wind under 30 km/h[1]. These are assumption-based comfort limits: your own tolerance may differ, but the pattern holds for stricter or looser ranges.

Here are the annual walkable daylight hours for each city (2016–2025)[1]:

Los Angeles leads with over 3,100 walkable hours a year. Miami, despite its sun, trails with just under 1,000. Notably, Seattle and London—often thought too rainy—offer more good daylight walking hours than Phoenix.

Why do rainier cities beat sunny ones for walking?

Phoenix, famous for sun, is simply too hot for comfortable daylight walks for much of the year. Our test shows that in Phoenix, August averages only 0.1 walkable daylight hours per day[1]. In contrast, Seattle and London, though wetter, rarely get hot enough to make walking unsafe or uncomfortable, so most summer daylight hours pass the comfort test.

Miami's low total is not about rain but relentless heat: from June to September, every daylight hour averages hotter than 26°C, yielding 0.0 walkable daylight hours per day in those months[1]. Phoenix suffers a similar fate in peak summer, but still has over twice Miami's annual total. Los Angeles' worst month is August, but even then, it offers 4.5 good daylight hours per day on average[1].

When should you walk for the best experience?

The best hour for a daylight walk changes with the season and city. In July, the optimal time is usually early morning—before 8:00—in Los Angeles, London, Denver, Phoenix, New York, and Chicago[1]. In Seattle and Miami, evenings (18:00 or later) offer the most comfortable conditions. In January, mid-afternoon is best almost everywhere.

For example:

• Phoenix in July: Best hour is 6:00; by 8:00, heat rules out most daylight hours[1].
• Seattle in July: Best hour is 20:00, when the temperature finally drops after a long day[1].
• Miami in July: Only evening hours (after 20:00) may feel walkable, and even then, it's rare[1].

What do these numbers actually mean for your walking habit?

These walkable hour counts come from our own daylight test, run on 30 October 2026, using ERA5 reanalysis data at a 9 km grid[1, 3]. This method captures broad city-center weather patterns—daylight hours when the apparent temperature fell between 5 and 26°C, with low wind and no rain—but it flattens out local variation: it does not see the difference between a shaded riverside path, a tree-lined neighborhood, or a downtown sidewalk baked by afternoon sun.

If your routine takes you off the grid—walking in a leafy park, along a breezy lake, or atop a sun-baked parking lot—the real comfort window could swing by several degrees or hours each day. For instance, shaded urban parks can feel up to 5°C cooler than exposed streets on a summer afternoon, extending walkable time for those who seek out tree cover (no source gives a precise average for these microclimate differences in the tested cities; what the sources do show is that 9 km grids can miss these local effects[3]).

The counts also exclude all non-daylight hours. Many walkers—especially in hotter cities—prefer dawn or dusk, when temperatures drop and quiet prevails. In Miami, for example, our data shows zero walkable daylight hours per day from June through September[1]. Yet early risers or evening walkers may still find bearable conditions, especially with good lighting or company; these hours are outside our measured window and not reflected in the reported figures.

Personal comfort is its own variable. Some walkers relish brisk 2°C mornings, while others stretch the high end beyond 26°C, especially by slowing their pace, choosing technical fabrics, or sticking to the shade. Our city-level test gives a starting point—but your own best walking hours may be more flexible, depending on route, routine, and weather tolerance.

A worked example: Comparing your options

*Illustrative scenario; city-center averages only. These figures come from our own test data, using city-center weather from 2016–2025[1]. Your local conditions may differ.*

Imagine you’re comparing city-center walking conditions in Seattle, Phoenix, and Miami, using our site’s walkable daylight hour counts[1]. Seattle, often seen as drizzly, comes out ahead: its city center averages 2,694 walkable daylight hours a year, compared to Phoenix’s 2,044, and Miami’s 953. That’s about 600 more walkable hours than Phoenix and over 1,700 more than Miami, by our method.

This count uses a strict comfort range (5–26°C, no rain, wind under 30 km/h), so it often rules out whole months in hotter cities: Miami’s city-center walkable daylight drops to zero from June to September. Phoenix, despite its clear skies, sees its lowest walkable time in August, when midday heat pushes almost every daylight hour above 26°C. In contrast, Seattle’s cool summers and long June daylight mean 12.8 comfortable hours a day at the peak.

These are city-center averages from our test[1], not guarantees for every neighborhood or individual—parks, tree cover, and microclimates may shift your own walkable hours above or below these counts. But this comparison highlights that, by these criteria, rainier cities like Seattle and London can offer more comfortable daylight walking time than their sunnier, hotter counterparts.

[1] The site owner's own test data (2026-10-30):

Questions readers ask

How do the limits (temperature, rain, wind) affect these rankings?

The overall order of cities barely changes with stricter (8–24°C) or looser (2–28°C) comfort limits. Only Denver and Phoenix swap places under the strictest range; Los Angeles, Seattle, and London still lead[1].

Could my own walkable hours be higher than these numbers?

Yes. These counts are for city-center daylight hours only, using weather at a single location and not accounting for shade, clothing, walking speed, or personal preferences. If you walk in early morning, after dark, or in cooler parks, you can probably find more time[1].

Does rain or temperature matter more for limiting walkable time?

In rainy places like Seattle and London, temperature rarely exceeds comfortable limits, so most summer daylight is walkable. In sunny, hot cities like Phoenix and Miami, high temperatures rule out most daylight hours for several months—even if it almost never rains[1].

How the numbers work

These figures were computed for this article, not estimated by its writer. Inputs come from the numbered sources or are assumptions, labelled as such; change an assumption and the results change with it.

Sources

1. The site owner's own test data (2026-10-30): Walkable daylight hours from ten years of hourly ERA5 weather in eight cities: our count
2. 🏛️ Historical Weather API | Open-Meteo.com