Photo by Diego Jimenez on Unsplash
20 Driest Cities in the World
In the driest cities on earth, rain is a genuine event. These places see so few rainy days per year that consistently clear, dry weather is simply what the climate delivers.
Antofagasta, Chile leads this list with just 0 rainy days per year. London averages around 150; Seattle around 160. In the driest cities here, rain is genuinely infrequent, an event worth noting rather than a routine part of the week. Across all 20 entries, the average is 1 days of rainfall annually.
Dry skies require specific atmospheric conditions: stable high-pressure systems, geographic barriers that block moisture-bearing winds, or location in a belt of the globe where rainfall is structurally limited. Those conditions concentrate in particular zones, which is why the 15 countries across 3 continents on this list cluster geographically rather than spreading evenly. Desert, steppe, and rain-shadow climates dominate.
The tradeoff that comes with low rainfall is usually heat. The conditions that suppress rain, high pressure, clear skies, dry air, also tend to produce high temperatures and intense sun. Most cities here rank well on sunshine totals because the two data points share the same cause. If dry skies are the draw but not at the cost of serious summer heat, the full climate data on each city page shows rainfall, sunshine, and temperatures side by side.
Want to adjust the criteria, compare side by side, or explore beyond this list? Open the interactive map with these filters pre-applied.
Explore on the Map →Cities are selected for geographic diversity, so nearby cities do not crowd each other out.
- 1 AntofagastaChileRain days0 daysSunny days: 238 days
- 2 Kom OmboAswan, EgyptRain days0 daysSunny days: 327 days
- 3 CairoCairo, EgyptRain days0 daysSunny days: 309 days
- 4 SabhaSabha District, LibyaRain days0 daysSunny days: 303 days
- 5 AgadezNigerRain days0 daysSunny days: 258 days
- 6 KorlaXinjiang, ChinaRain days1 daysSunny days: 206 days
- 7 HamiXinjiang, ChinaRain days1 daysSunny days: 225 days
- 8 OuarglaOuargla, AlgeriaRain days1 daysSunny days: 294 days
- 9 LaayouneWestern SaharaRain days1 daysSunny days: 243 days
- 10 ZabolIranRain days1 daysSunny days: 313 days
- 11 KyzylordaQyzylorda, KazakhstanRain days1 daysSunny days: 207 days
- 12 TobrukAl Buţnān, LibyaRain days1 daysSunny days: 284 days
- 13 NouakchottMauritaniaRain days1 daysSunny days: 258 days
- 14 LimaLima Province, PeruRain days1 daysSunny days: 56 days
- 15 SaddiqabadPakistanRain days1 daysSunny days: 268 days
- 16 Port SudanRed Sea, SudanRain days1 daysSunny days: 269 days
- 17 AdenYemenRain days1 daysSunny days: 274 days
- 18 DubaiUnited Arab EmiratesRain days2 daysSunny days: 300 days
- 19 GujangbaghXinjiang, ChinaRain days2 daysSunny days: 197 days
- 20 YazdYazd Province, IranRain days2 daysSunny days: 303 days