Qibla direction in Thunder Bay

How to face the Qibla in Thunder Bay

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards east and move a further 43.3° towards north: the result is the bearing of 46.7°. Because the angle sits far from the cardinal points, a rough guess such as “east” would be off by more than 40°, which is why a measured bearing matters in Thunder Bay.

Facing the Qibla is a condition of the prayer. Whoever prays inside the Sacred Mosque faces the Kaaba itself; whoever is far away, as in Thunder Bay, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its prayer rows were aligned when it was built. Once you know the direction at home, a discreet mark on the wall saves you from checking again.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Thunder Bay to Mecca points to 104.5° (east), a full 57.9° away from the true Qibla of 46.7° (north-east). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 1,183 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Thunder Bay first heads north-east, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 46.7° obtained? From the coordinates of Thunder Bay (48.3820° N, 89.2502° W) and of the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E), spherical trigonometry gives the starting bearing of the great circle joining them. Mosque architects and astronomical Qibla tables rely on exactly the same calculation.

Distance from Thunder Bay to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 10,753 km from Thunder Bay as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 10,452 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 13 h 09 min, although most pilgrims from Thunder Bay connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Thunder Bay run 8 hours behind Mecca in winter and 7 hours behind Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Thunder Bay rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Thunder Bay

From Thunder Bay the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 46.7°, so you cannot simply face the sun. The opposite method works instead, as the right-hand column of the table shows.

On 365 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 16:28.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Thunder Bay (05:18 and 05:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 16:29 and 28 November 2027 at 16:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Thunder Bay points straight to Mecca.

Thunder Bay compared with other cities

Compared with Ottawa, 1,080 km away, the Qibla in Thunder Bay is turned 10.5° further anticlockwise (46.7° against 57.2°), and Mecca is 608 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Winnipeg (598 km), prays towards 40.0°, a difference of 6.6°.

Across the 46 cities in Canada on this site, the Qibla ranges from 16.5° in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to 73.4° in St. John's, a spread of 56.9°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for Canada.

Qibla in cities near Thunder Bay

• Winnipeg40.0° · 598 km
• Greater Sudbury53.2° · 656 km
• Windsor52.1° · 833 km
• Barrie54.3° · 857 km
• London, Ontario, Canada53.3° · 864 km
• Kitchener53.8° · 871 km