Sun path Oxford: sunrise, sunset and the sun's height by month (2026)

Last checked: 23 October 2026. Written by the Flatwalk team.

Short answer. From Carfax, the midday sun on 21 December stands about 15° above the horizon, and on 21 June about 62°. Winter's shortest day runs 7h 47m, sunrise 8:09 and sunset 15:56 GMT; summer's longest runs 16h 41m, 4:46 to 21:27 BST. The December sun climbs out of the southeast at 129° and sinks in the southwest at 231°, whereas the June sun comes up in the northeast at 49° and goes down in the northwest at 311°. Open sky in front lets a south facing window keep the sun all December day; a north facing window gets none.

See the sun at your own window

Oxford's sun by month

Carfax (51.75° N, 1.26° W), the old crossroads in the middle of Oxford, is the point used, on the 15th of each month of 2026, with clock times. A bearing is measured round from true north, so east reads 90°, south 180° and west 270°. Whether you live in Headington or Summertown, the times move by about a minute at most.

Oxford's summer rows, April to October, use BST, which runs from 29 March 2026 until 25 October 2026. Noon in the astronomical sense, with the sun due south and highest, falls at 12:03 GMT on 21 December and 13:06 BST on 21 June; the noon column is the height at that moment above a flat horizon.

Oxford compared with London

Oxford is 0.2° of latitude north of central London and 1.1° of longitude west of it, and the westward step is the one you notice. Its midwinter day ends up 2 minutes shorter than London's and its midsummer day 3 minutes longer. The clock shows more: Oxford's December sunrise and sunset come 6 and 3 minutes later than London's, and its June sunrise and sunset 3 and 6 minutes later. The gap in the height of the noon sun is tiny: on the shortest day Oxford's is 0.2° lower, 14.9° against 15.1°. Both rules are at work here, since a city north of London has shorter winter days and longer summer ones, and every degree west pushes the clock times back by about 4 minutes.

Hours of sun on each side of a flat in Oxford

For each way a window can face, the table gives the most direct sun it could get with a flat horizon and nothing in front: an upper limit for open sky. In real Oxford streets, neighbouring buildings, trees and any balcony above take some of it away, and take the most in winter, with the sun low.

Points worth taking from the Oxford table:

• December: south takes it all. A south window is in sun for the whole day (7 h 45 min); facing east or west you get about 3 h 55 min, and facing north nothing.
• June: the diagonal walls win. With the summer sun rising and setting well round to the north, south-east and south-west collect 10 h 05 min, ahead of 9 h 20 min for south. North is not left out either: 7 h 20 min, split between early morning and late evening.
• March: almost nothing for north. A sun that rises nearly due east and sets nearly due west, as it does near 21 March, gives a north wall just 15 min.

In a city this low, plenty of Oxford windows get close to these figures, though none beats them; the sun tool takes off what your own street blocks, building by building.

What it means for flats in Oxford

Oxford is a low city. College buildings around quads fill much of the centre, and planning rules protect views of the spires, so tall blocks are rare and the five-storey street example below is close to a worst case. Many flats are in Victorian terraces in Jericho and east Oxford, or in large North Oxford villas divided into flats, where the house across the road is usually well under five storeys. The exception is the inward-looking quad or the narrow lane, where walls close on every side can still hide a sun that climbs only about 15° in December.

• Choosing the aspect. Winter sun favours windows set anywhere from south-east to south-west. Pick west for afternoon and evening sun, east for mornings; north brings an even light, and direct sun only at the edges of summer days.
• Choosing the storey. Tall blocks are scarce in Oxford, but the test case is still worth knowing. A five-storey block 15 m (49 ft) high, under a noon sun about 15° up on 21 December, throws a shadow about 56 m (185 ft) long: 2.8 times a 20 m (66 ft) street, measured wall to wall. Facing it, the opposite facade is shaded at midday up to about 9.7 m, so storeys 1 to 3 (ground floor as storey 1, 3 m per storey) get no midday sun on the shortest day and storey 4 is the first that does. On 21 March the picture changes: a shadow of about 19 m stops before it reaches the houses opposite, and every floor is in sun at noon.
• When there is a balcony overhead. It shades a south window more in summer than in winter: the June sun, about 62° up, falls steeply onto the slab, while the 15° December sun reaches in underneath. Turn the balcony to the west and its sun lasts all evening, to sunset after 21:00 in June.
• Back gardens in winter. Oxford's back gardens follow the same rule as anywhere: on 21 December a house 6 m to the eaves sends about 22 m of noon shadow due north. Behind a Jericho or east Oxford terrace, then, it is the north facing garden that loses its midwinter sun near the house; a south facing one only suffers where a wall, a tree or another house stands to its south. June's noon shadow, by comparison, is only about 3 m.

Check your own window in Oxford in 3 steps

To get from these ceilings to your own window, Flatwalk's free tool, Sun at your window, adds in the buildings, trees and ground around it and counts the hours of direct sun that are left. Every Oxford building outline is on its map, yet none of the heights is measured; for now that data exists for just London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Here the tool estimates heights and says so, and if a college range or a house opposite looks too tall or too short, Something off? lets you correct it and add big trees that are missing.

1. Begin at your front door. Enter your Oxford address under "See the sun at your window" and pick your building out on the satellite map. Next comes a choice between A whole house and A flat; a flat also asks for Your floor.
2. Put the windows in. Look for the tag on each outside wall, "South wall · sun side" for instance, tap it, then tap the window's position or drag to draw it in.
3. See the result. See my sun runs the numbers; switch it to Shortest day for the December test, when the hours of direct sun, the 12 month bars and "What takes your sun" tell you how a midwinter day goes. Typical weather adds the usual cloud to those hours.

What it cannot tell you

• Sums, not a sensor. Your Oxford hours are calculated from maps and the sun's position; no light reading is ever taken at the window.
• No measured heights for Oxford yet. As the section above explains, the heights here are estimates drawn from the map, so look hard at the college walls and houses that matter to you.
• Recent change. Oxford still builds and plants, but the tool knows only what the map data held: a building completed later, or a tree planted or removed since about 2017 to 2019, needs fixing through Something off?, by adjusting a height or adding the building or tree.
• Cloud. Cloud comes from a monthly average for Oxford over 2005 to 2023, so nothing is forecast, any one day may differ, and for one window the result can be about 10 to 15% off.
• Windows, and nothing outdoors. It stops at the glass: there is no figure for a lawn, a terrace floor or a roof for solar panels.
• Not a legal document. Do not take it to a planning objection as evidence: it is no legal or certified report, and no substitute for a right to light survey.
• Details left out. Glass tint, window frames and the shape of your own roof are ignored, and map outlines can be a metre off the real wall.

Try it free: your Oxford address, your floor, your window

What Flatwalk does that older planners skip

Lit after dark

Ceiling lights, lamps and LED strips go in, and you find out where you will need them when the sun goes down.

The street outside

Your address brings up the buildings around the flat in 3D, wherever the map has them.

Sunlight for your Oxford street

Every room gets its own count of direct-sun time, from real sunlight on whatever date and hour you set.

Your floor, true size

Your own floorboards and a sofa at its real size: see the pair together through the live camera or in a photo of the room.

Built piece by piece

Down to the window and door types, the kitchen, the wardrobes and the bathroom, the flat is built one piece at a time.

Thumb-sized

Hold the phone in one hand and nudge the hour with your thumb; the light follows through every room.

Swipe for more. Every picture is the app itself.

One flat, free

Questions people ask

What is the sun path in Oxford? The sun's arc over Oxford is short and low in winter: up in the southeast, about 15° above the southern horizon at midday on 21 December, down in the southwest. Summer's arc is long and high, starting in the northeast, topping out near 62° at midday on 21 June and ending in the northwest. Around 21 March and 23 September the arc starts and ends near due east and due west.

What time is sunrise and sunset in Oxford in December? On 21 December 2026 Oxford's day runs from 8:09 to 15:56 GMT, 7h 47m in all. The earliest sunsets, around 15:54, fall in mid-December; the latest sunrises, around 8:11, wait until the very end of the month.

Where does the sun rise and set in Oxford? On the shortest day, look southeast, to about 129°, for sunrise, and southwest, to about 231°, for sunset. In June, though, both lie north of the east-west line, at about 49° (northeast) and about 311° (northwest).

Which way should my flat face in Oxford? South-east to south-west, every time, if winter sun matters to you, and it also gives the most sun over the whole year. Evenings at home point to west, early starts to east. Oxford's streets are mostly low, but check the building opposite anyway: across a 20 m street, a five-storey block shades the lower three floors at midday on the shortest day.

How high is the sun in Oxford in winter? Barely 15° at midday on 21 December. Through the whole stretch from mid-November to mid-January the noon sun stays below about 20°. A college wall or a house opposite that rises more than 15° above your window, viewed from inside, is enough to take the midday sun away.