Where's the sunniest place in the nation, and world?

Factual Questions
1

Does anybody know where the sunniest place is?

I tried to find this out via the Internet, but to no avail. I figured this is the sort of mindless trivia a straight-doper could recite in his/her sleep. Anybody know?

2

Why, in the presence of Ukulele Ike, of course!

Did you even have to ASK

3

Seattle.

4

[WAG] The down side of the equatorial Hadley (sp?) Cells. A Hadley Cell, IIRC, begins at the equator where the sun’s rays heat the ocean causing hot, moist air to rise (giving up a lot of its moisture as it does). At the top of the column the air splits in two, roughly half moving away to the north, half to the south. As it moves on the air begins to cool and sink. The sinking air is already somewhat dry, and as it moves lower it goes through adiabatic (sp?) warming. As it gets warmer, its ability to hold moisture increases, so there is less clown formation and consequently less precipitation. I believe this is one of the reasons why there are lots of deserts along the same latitude as the Sahara.

I’d think the sunniest place around would be somewhere along that region of the Earth, because the relative proximity to the equator gives the area (on average) the longest period of daylight in addition to low cloud formation. [/WAG]

There are other Hadley Cells in different parts of the Earth. I wonder, if sunniest means most hours of sunlight per year, how regions on the downside of a polar Hadley Cell would stack up? Ninety percent sunlight over six months of 24 hour days is 3,900 hours of sunlight, give or take. Hmmm… any climatologists out there?

5

For the USA, this list, “National Average - Cloudy, Partly Cloudy, Clear Days”, shows the highest number for Yuma, Arizona: an annual average of 242 clear days (average calculated over a period of 32 years.)

6

For sunniest place in the world:

This site, Global Measured Extremes of Temperature and Precipitation, shows the Lowest Average Annual Precipitation to be recorded in Arica, Chile.

Does “Lowest Average Annual Precipitation” necessarily correspond to “Highest Average Clear Days?” I wouldn’t think so, but it must be pretty close.

7
      • Well, I got two sources: a detailed one of US cities, and a general reference to a (possible) foreign candidate.
  • US Reference: the Places Rated Almanac by David Savageau and Geoffrey Loftus, ISBN 0-02-861233-7. Mine is a few years old (1993), so El Nino may have thrown the world off a bit. This book contains many types of comparable data on most major US cities - it’s fun to look through if you’re the type that dreams of hittin’ the road. Each city has two graphs that show average temperatures and precipitation. The winner is:
    1 - Yuma, Arizona. The graphs for average precipitation are graduated in tenths of an inch, and its graph is completely clean.
    Runners up: (roughly in order, increasing percipitation)
    Las Vegas NV has a bit of snow in January.
    Phoenix AZ gets a bit more rain in December.
    Bakersfield, CA gets a bit more rain during both Feb & March.
  • The temperatures of all these places is pretty close at any point in time.
    Worldwide, I have a reference in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts ISBN 0-8038-9347-7 :
  • When the troops of Thutmose I (king of Egypt about 1525 B.C.) invaded Syria and Carchemish, they were amazed at the rain that occurred because none had ever seen any before. So you might check out that area also. - MC
8

At the top of the earth where the ozone ate a big hole so that its sunny all the time.

But really it is:
Weather : Maximum sunshine

Description:
0
Town:
Yuma / St Petersburg / Falmouth
Area:
Arizona / Florida / Cornwall, Great Britain
Country:
USA / Great Britain / England

9

It’s Yuma, AZ that is the sunniest city in the U.S. The Isle of Rhodes is the sunniest place in Europe. The driest place on the earth (least rain) is the Atacama Desert in Chile. But in parts of that desert, there is a heavy fog almost every night.