The Sunniest and Cloudiest Cities in America
Yuma, Arizona gets sun about 90% of all possible daylight hours — the sunniest place not just in America but on Earth. At the other end, the Olympic Peninsula and the shores of Lake Erie go overcast more than 200 days a year. Both extremes, ranked from NOAA data, with the catch that trips up every other list explained.
The sunniest city in the United States is Yuma, Arizona, where the sun shines about 90% of the possible daylight hours — roughly 4,015 hours a year, the figure that earns Yuma the Guinness World Record for sunniest place on Earth. NOAA’s own sky-cover data agrees: Yuma averages 242 clear days a year, more than any other US station. Behind it comes a wall of Desert Southwest cities — Phoenix and Tucson at 85% of possible sunshine, Las Vegas at 84%, El Paso at 83%.
The cloudy end of the country is just as concentrated, in two places most people wouldn’t guess: the Pacific Northwest coast and the belt from the Great Lakes through the Appalachians. Below are both rankings — and the one thing that makes “sunniest city” harder to answer than it looks: NOAA keeps two different sunshine numbers, and they don’t always agree.
America’s Sunniest Cities
Ranked by percent of possible sunshine — the share of daylight hours the sun is actually out — from NOAA’s Comparative Climatic Data. The top of this list is almost entirely the Desert Southwest and interior California, where high pressure parks dry, sinking air overhead for most of the year.
| # | City | % of possible sunshine |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yuma, AZsunniest on Earth | 90% |
| 2 | Tucson, AZ | 85% |
| 3 | Phoenix, AZ | 85% |
| 4 | Las Vegas, NV | 84% |
| 5 | El Paso, TX | 83% |
| 6 | Reno, NV | 81% |
| 7 | Pueblo, CO | 78% |
| 8 | Sacramento, CA | 77% |
| 9 | Key West, FL | 77% |
| 10 | Fresno, CA | 76% |
| 11 | Albuquerque, NM | 76% |
| 12 | Los Angeles, CA | 72% |
| 13 | Amarillo, TX | 72% |
| 14 | Miami, FL | 70% |
Percent of possible sunshine, NOAA NCEI Comparative Climatic Data, “Sunshine — Average Percent of Possible Sunshine.” Yuma’s 90% reflects its long historical record (Guinness lists ~4,015 sunshine hours a year); the percentages for other cities come from the CCD sunshine table, whose instrument-based record ends in the 1980s at many stations — see the note below on why the modern clear-day count can rank cities differently.
The modern cross-check: most clear days
Because the sunshine-percent instruments were retired at many sites, the most current sunniest measure is NOAA’s count of clear days a year (sky-cover observations, kept up to date). It tells the same story — the desert wins — with Yuma far ahead:
America’s Cloudiest Cities
The mirror ranking — mean cloudy days a year, from NOAA’s sky-cover data, limited to the contiguous US (Alaska is cloudier still). Two regions own this list: the Pacific Northwest, where onshore flow off a cool ocean keeps a low overcast in place, and the Great Lakes and Appalachians, where lake moisture and upslope clouds pile up.
| # | City | Cloudy days / yr | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quillayute, WA | 239 | Olympic Peninsula coast |
| 2 | Astoria, OR | 239 | |
| 3 | Olympia, WA | 228 | |
| 4 | Seattle, WA | 226 | |
| 5 | Portland, OR | 222 | |
| 6 | Kalispell, MT | 214 | |
| 7 | Binghamton, NY | 212 | |
| 8 | Elkins, WV | 212 | |
| 9 | Beckley, WV | 210 | |
| 10 | Eugene, OR | 209 | |
| 11 | Sault Ste. Marie, MI | 209 | |
| 12 | Buffalo, NY | 208 | |
| 13 | Syracuse, NY | 205 | |
| 14 | Erie, PA | 205 | |
| 15 | Pittsburgh, PA | 203 | |
| 16 | Cleveland, OH | 202 | |
| 17 | Rochester, NY | 200 |
Mean number of cloudy days a year, NOAA NCEI Comparative Climatic Data, “Mean Number of Clear, Partly Cloudy and Cloudy Days,” current through the 2018 edition. Mount Washington, NH (244 cloudy days) is a mountaintop observatory and is excluded. Alaska stations are cloudier than any in the Lower 48.
Why “Percent Sunshine” and “Clear Days” Don’t Always Agree
Ask for the sunniest city and you can get two slightly different answers from the same agency, because NOAA keeps two sunshine numbers that measure different things:
- Percent of possible sunshine is the fraction of daylight hours the sun is actually shining, measured by a sunshine recorder. It is the most intuitive number — but many stations retired those instruments decades ago, so NOAA’s percentage table is frozen on an older period of record.
- Clear, partly cloudy and cloudy days come from routine sky-cover observations that never stopped, so that table is current. It counts a whole day as “clear” or “cloudy,” which is coarser than counting hours of sun.
The two can rank cities differently. A coastal California city with a marine layer that burns off by midday can log plenty of “clear” afternoons while its morning overcast pulls down its hours-of-sunshine percentage. Desert-monsoon cities do the reverse — brilliant mornings, then afternoon buildups in July and August. Both tables still put the Desert Southwest on top and the Pacific Northwest on the bottom; they just quibble about the order in the middle. When a page claims one exact “sunniest city,” ask which number it used — and over what years. We wrote up how a weather figure becomes an official record in how weather records are actually verified.
The Geography of Sun and Cloud
The sunniest and cloudiest places aren’t random — they fall where the atmosphere either suppresses clouds or manufactures them wholesale.
- The subtropical high bakes the Southwest. Around 30° north, air sinks continuously, warming and drying as it descends. Sinking air cannot form clouds, so Yuma, Phoenix, Las Vegas and El Paso sit under near-permanent clear skies — the same circulation that rings the planet with deserts.
- Onshore flow floods the Pacific Northwest. Cool, moist Pacific air pushed inland over Washington and Oregon condenses into a persistent low overcast, especially October through May. Quillayute, Astoria, Seattle and Portland are the first land that ocean air reaches.
- The Great Lakes make their own clouds. Buffalo, Cleveland, Erie, Rochester and Syracuse sit downwind of open water that pumps moisture into the air all winter, producing endless gray “lake-effect” cloud decks. The Appalachian cloudy cities — Elkins and Beckley, West Virginia — get theirs from air forced upslope over the mountains.
Seattle: Cloudy, Yes. Rainy, Not Really.
Seattle’s reputation is half right. On cloud, it earns it — 226 cloudy days a year put it among the grayest cities in the country. But the city is not among America’s rainiest: it gets far less total rainfall than New York, Atlanta or Houston, because its weather is low, gray and drizzly rather than the heavy downpours that pile up totals on the Gulf Coast. A lot of overcast, not a lot of water. You can see exactly where it lands against the genuinely wet cities in the rainiest cities in America — it sits well below the top. If you want to check your own town’s sunshine and rain against the record, look up any date at our weather-history tool, and tell us how your city’s gray season actually feels.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the sunniest city in the US?
Yuma, Arizona, is the sunniest city in the United States — and the sunniest place on Earth, per Guinness World Records. The sun shines about 90% of the possible daylight hours there, roughly 4,015 hours a year, and NOAA records it with 242 clear days annually. Phoenix and Tucson follow at 85% of possible sunshine, then Las Vegas (84%) and El Paso (83%).
What is the cloudiest city in America?
In the contiguous US, the cloudiest cities are on the Olympic Peninsula and Oregon coast — Quillayute, Washington and Astoria, Oregon, each with about 239 cloudy days a year in NOAA’s sky-cover data. Among major cities, Seattle (226 cloudy days) and Portland, Oregon (222) lead, followed by a Great Lakes and Appalachian cluster: Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Rochester and Syracuse.
Why do "percent of sunshine" and "clear days" rankings disagree?
They measure different things. "Percent of possible sunshine" is the share of daylight hours the sun actually shines, recorded by sunshine instruments that many stations retired decades ago, so NOAA’s percentage table runs on an older record. "Clear days" counts days by sky cover and is kept up to date. A coastal city with marine-layer mornings that burn off can post lots of clear days but a lower sunshine percentage, so the two lists rank the same cities in a slightly different order.
Is Seattle really that cloudy?
Yes — Seattle averages 226 cloudy days a year, among the most of any US city, so its gray reputation is earned. What is overstated is the rain: Seattle is not among the rainiest US cities and gets far less total rainfall than New York, Atlanta or Houston. It is cloudy and drizzly rather than genuinely wet — a lot of overcast days with light rain, not heavy downpours.
Keep Exploring
This is the sunshine chapter of our US city-climate series. See which cities get the most wind in the windiest cities in America, the heat in the hottest states and cities, the cold in the coldest cities, and how it all nets out in the best-weather states ranking. Browse the rest at our weather records.
Sources & Method
Sunshine percentages and clear/cloudy-day counts are from NOAA’s Comparative Climatic Data (National Centers for Environmental Information): the “Sunshine — Average Percent of Possible Sunshine” table and the “Mean Number of Clear, Partly Cloudy and Cloudy Days” table (current through the 2018 edition), pulled and ranked on October 9, 2026. Both rankings are limited to the contiguous US. Yuma’s standing as the sunniest place on Earth — about 90% of possible sunshine and ~4,015 hours a year — is from Guinness World Records, as summarized for Yuma. The sunshine-percent table’s instrument record ends in the 1980s at many stations, which is why the clear-day count is included as the current cross-check.