Prince of Wales Island

33,339 km² of land in the Northwest Passage.

N 20 km

BeachesPeaksWaterfallsLakes

Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.

In numbers

33,339km²

Area

1,888km

Coastline

measured on a simplified outline

People

0°C

Warmest sea

August

3km

To the mainland

When to go to Prince of Wales Island

Best to visit from December to April.

The sea is warmest in August (0 °C) and coolest in January (-2 °C). The water never reaches 21 °C: bring a wetsuit.

-2°-28°-34°

Jan3

-2°-29°-35°

Feb2

-2°-24°-31°

Mar4

-2°-14°-22°

Apr4

-2°-4°-10°

May7

-1°5°1°

Jun13

0°11°5°

Jul11

0°7°1°

Aug12

0°0°-5°

Sep10

-1°-11°-15°

Oct7

-2°-20°-26°

Nov5

-2°-26°-31°

Dec3

Sea temperature (the water level) Air: night low to afternoon high Wet days Best months

Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.

Island in Nunavut, Canada

Prince of Wales Island is an island in Canada. It belongs to Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It covers 33,339 km², with 1,888 km of coastline. Nobody lives on it. The nearest mainland is 3 km away.

Getting there

Resolute Bay Airport (YRB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 260 km in a straight lineCar hire at YZF airport (Yellowknife)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
3 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast
From December to Aprilbest months to go (from 30 years of averages)

Plan the trip

Ferries, stays and things to do

Car hire at YZF airport (Yellowknife)Discover CarsSee

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

On the island

What you find on Prince of Wales Island.

2,975beaches
11named peaksManaton Peak, Muskox Hill, Mount Cowie and 8 more
3waterfalls

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Prince of Wales Island in our other atlases

Everything Coastya, Peakyas, Lakeyas and Cascadyas know about what lies inside Prince of Wales Island, each with its own numbers.

4lakesLakeyas

Largest lake
132km²
Crooked Lake
according to Lakeyas
Warmest lake
9.8°C
Forsyth Lake
surface water, warmest month · according to Lakeyas

4 lakes

on Lakeyas, the lake atlas

Crooked Lake132km²
Fisher Lake57.7km²
Forsyth Lake12.1km²
Allen Lake4.6km²

Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗

Size, for real

Next to islands you may know.

Prince of Wales Island33,339 km²

Ireland83,069 km²

Sicily25,615 km²

200 km

All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).

Month by month

The weather on the island.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Afternoon high (°C)	-28	-29	-24	-14	-4	5	11	7	0	-11	-20	-26
Night low (°C)	-34	-35	-31	-22	-10	1	5	1	-5	-15	-26	-31
Sea (°C)	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-1	0	0	0	-1	-2	-2
Rain (mm)	13	10	15	17	26	50	45	50	39	27	19	14
Wet days	3	2	4	4	7	13	11	12	10	7	5	3
Sun h/day	3.9	0.7	5.4	12.9	14.3	9.1	7.3	4.7	1.7	0.5	1.0	—
Wind (km/h)	16	15	16	17	18	18	17	17	17	17	16	16

Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.

Recent years

Warmer and cooler years at sea.

Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	+0.3	+0.3	+0.1	+0.2	+0.1	−0.4	−0.9	−1.1	−0.7	−0.2	+0.1	+0.3
2021	+0.3	+0.3	+0.1	+0.2	+0.1	−0.4	−0.9	−1.2	−1.0	−0.2	+0.1	+0.3
2022	+0.3	+0.3	+0.1	+0.2	+0.1	−0.4	−0.9	−0.5	+0.4	−0.2	+0.1	+0.3
2023	+0.3	+0.3	+0.1	+0.2	+0.1	−0.4	−0.8	−0.2	+1.0	+0.4	+0.2	+0.3
2024	+0.3	+0.3	+0.1	+0.2	+0.1	−0.4	−0.9	−0.4	+0.4	+0.6	+0.1	+0.3
2025	+0.3	+0.3	+0.2	+0.2	+0.1	−0.3	−0.7	+0.4	+0.4	+0.4	+0.2	+0.3

+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual

Nearby

More islands nearby.

Somerset Island

Canada24,786 km²481 m191 km away

Stefansson Island

Canada4,473 km²267 m231 km away

Cornwallis Island

Canada6,995 km²359 m301 km away

Bathurst Island

Canada16,042 km²389 m344 km away

Byam Martin Island

Canada1,158 km²157 m329 km away

Victoria Island

Canada217,291 km²655 m396 km away

King William Island

Canada13,111 km²292 m393 km away

Alexander Island

Canada484 km²180 m372 km away

About these numbers

Names, area, population	Wikidata (Q207925) · CC0
Outline	Natural Earth · public domain
Sea temperature	NOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020
Climate	NASA POWER · 1991–2020
Relief, 3D model	Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Towns	GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Images	EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Beaches, mountains, lakes and waterfalls	Lakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0, LakeTEMP (Korver et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

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