The Wettest and Driest Places on Earth
One village in India gets roughly 467 inches of rain a year — nearly 40 feet. A valley in Antarctica has gone about two million years without a drop, and a town in Chile once waited 14 years for measurable rain. Both extremes are on the same planet. Here are the wettest and driest places on Earth, ranked, with a source on every number.
The gap between the wettest and driest places on Earth is almost incomprehensible. Mawsynram, in the Indian state of Meghalaya, averages 11,872 mm (467 inches) of rain a year across the 1941–1979 record — the highest average annual rainfall Guinness and the World Meteorological Organization recognise. Quillagua, in Chile's Atacama Desert, averaged 0.5 mm a year over 1964–2001. That is one place getting more than twentythousand times the rain of the other.
The two lists below rank those extremes separately. They are not opposites by accident: almost every entry on both tables is explained by the same two forces of geography — mountains that force wet air upward until it pours, and the dry shadows those same mountains cast on the far side. First, the wet end.
The Wettest Places on Earth
Ranked by long-term mean annual rainfall. The official record-holder is Mawsynram, but the raw numbers are genuinely contested — Colombia's Pacific coast measures higher, and the record books and the rain gauges do not quite agree (more on that below). Every figure carries its source.
The Pacific coast of Colombia, not India, may actually be the wettest inhabited place on Earth. Colombia's met service IDEAM puts López de Micay's long-term mean near 12,100 mm, and some datasets higher — above Mawsynram. It has never carried the official title, but by the numbers it outranks the record-holder.
Lloró is the famous challenger: an often-quoted 12,717 mm estimate would make it the wettest place on Earth. The catch — that figure is an estimate for the surrounding basin. The town's own rain gauge averaged a far lower ~7,559 mm for 1971–2000, which is why the claim stays disputed.
The officially recognised wettest place on Earth, holding the Guinness record for the highest average annual rainfall. It sits on a ridge of the Khasi Hills where monsoon air off the Bay of Bengal is forced sharply upward — a near-perfect rain machine for four months a year.
Mawsynram's neighbour and former record-holder. Cherrapunji still owns the extremes: 26,471 mm fell in the 12 months of August 1860–July 1861 — the most rain ever recorded anywhere in a single year — and it holds WMO records for rainfall over several shorter durations too.
Another Chocó-region contender, often cited among the five rainiest places on Earth. The Pacific-facing Chocó is the single rainiest stretch of inhabited coastline on the planet, which is why Colombia keeps appearing on this list.
The wettest spot in the United States, and for decades billed as the wettest on Earth. Its summit crater catches the trade winds head-on; in 1982 it logged 666 inches. The mountain is wrung dry so completely that Kauaʻi's west side, a few miles away, is near-desert.
Africa's wettest place, at the foot of Mount Cameroon where it meets the Atlantic. Same recipe as the others: a wall of mountain standing in the path of warm, moisture-loaded ocean air.
The Driest Places on Earth
Ranked driest first, by long-term mean annual rainfall. The split here mirrors the cold records: the absolute driest spot is uninhabited (an Antarctic valley), while the driest places people actually live are in the Atacama and the eastern Sahara.
The driest place on Earth in the fullest sense. These ice-free Antarctic valleys are kept rainless by katabatic winds that strip away all moisture; scientists estimate parts have not seen precipitation in roughly two million years. NASA studies them as the closest analogue to the surface of Mars.
The driest inhabited weather station on record. Quillagua sits in the Atacama, the driest non-polar desert on Earth, pinned between the Andes rain shadow and the cold, rain-killing Humboldt Current offshore.
A city of 200,000 that still barely sees rain. Arica once went 172 straight months — more than 14 years, October 1903 to January 1918 — without measurable rainfall, one of the longest documented droughts anywhere.
The driest inhabited region outside the Atacama. Deep in the eastern Sahara, Aswan and the Nubian towns south of it can go years between measurable rains — the subtropical high parks dry, sinking air over them almost permanently.
The driest place in North America. Furnace Creek's gauge averages barely two inches a year (some normals put it near 1.6 in), locked in the rain shadow of four mountain ranges that each wring out Pacific storms in turn.
The driest city in the United States — about 2.5 inches of rain on roughly 15 days a year, from our own station analysis. Yuma also gets more sunshine than almost anywhere on Earth, both consequences of sitting under the descending subtropical high.
The US figures — Death Valley and Yuma — line up with our own station data. See the driest cities in America.
The Fight Over the Wettest Place
Ask “what is the wettest place on Earth?” and you will get three different answers, all defensible, because they measure three different things:
- Highest recognised average — Mawsynram, India. At 11,872 mm (467 in), it holds the Guinness record and is the number the WMO community cites. This is the “official” answer.
- Highest measured average — the Colombian Chocó. López de Micay, Lloró and Tutunendo on Colombia's Pacific coast have long-term means at or above Mawsynram's. The problem is record quality: Lloró's famous 12,717 mm is a basin estimate, not a single gauge reading, so it has never been certified — even though it may well be the true champion.
- Most rain in one stretch — Cherrapunji, India. For single-period extremes, Cherrapunji is untouchable: 26,471 mm in 12 months (1860–61), plus WMO records at shorter durations. In a big monsoon it can out-rain Mawsynram's whole annual average in a matter of weeks.
So the honest answer is: Mawsynram holds the title, Colombia probably deserves it, and Cherrapunji owns the records that actually make the news. It is the same problem that haunts every “most extreme” claim — what counts depends on how, where and how long you measured. We wrote up how a reading becomes an official record in how weather records are actually verified.
Why One Place Floods and the Next Never Sees Rain
The wettest and driest places are often two sides of the same mountain. It comes down to what air does when it is forced to rise or sink:
- Orographic lift makes the wet places. When warm, moisture-laden ocean air slams into a mountain wall, it has nowhere to go but up. Rising air cools, water vapour condenses, and it pours. Mawsynram, Waiʻaleʻale, Debundscha and the Colombian Chocó are all the first high ground in the path of a loaded ocean wind.
- Rain shadows make the dry places. Once that air has dumped its rain climbing the mountain, it slides down the far side warm and wrung-out. The Atacama sits behind the Andes; Death Valley behind four ranges in a row. Same storm, opposite outcome, a few miles apart.
- The subtropical high bakes the rest. Around 30° north and south, the atmosphere's circulation forces air to sink continuously, which suppresses clouds. That is what parks permanent drought over the Sahara (Aswan) and Yuma, and it is why the world's great deserts ring the globe in two neat bands.
- Cold ocean currents seal the deal. The Atacama has a third strike against it: the chilly Humboldt Current offshore cools the air above it, so even coastal breezes carry little moisture inland. Fog, yes; rain, almost never.
America's Own Extremes: Waiʻaleʻale to Death Valley
The United States has both ends of this scale, and both are more dramatic than most people realise. The wettest spot is Mount Waiʻaleʻale on Kauaʻi at around 450 inches a year; among inhabited cities, Hilo, Hawaii tops the list at about 126 inches, and on the mainland the Olympic Peninsula rainforest in Washington clears 100. At the other end, Death Valley averages roughly 2.2 inches and Yuma, Arizona is the driest city at 2.5 inches on about 15 rainy days a year. For the full picture from our 139-million-record database, see the rainiest cities in America, the rainiest states, and the driest cities. When all that rain falls at once, you get the worst floods in US history. You can also look up the wettest day your own town ever recorded on our weather-history tool — and if your local gauge beat a number here, tell us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the wettest place on Earth?
Officially, Mawsynram in Meghalaya, India — about 11,872 mm (467 inches) a year, the Guinness record for highest average annual rainfall. But Colombian Pacific-coast stations (López de Micay, and the disputed Lloró figure) have measured higher long-term means, so the “true” wettest place depends on whether you want the certified record or the biggest measurement.
What is the driest place on Earth?
The McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, where parts have had no precipitation for roughly two million years. Among places with weather stations, the driest is Chile's Atacama Desert: Quillagua averaged just 0.5 mm of rain a year from 1964 to 2001.
Where has it rained the most in a single year?
Cherrapunji, India, with 26,471 mm (1,042 inches) from August 1860 to July 1861 — the most rain ever recorded anywhere in 12 months. That is more than 86 feet of water — over double Mawsynram's normal annual total, and more than 25 years of rain for a typical temperate city, all in one year.
What are the wettest and driest places in the US?
Wettest: Mount Waiʻaleʻale on Kauaʻi (~450 inches a year); rainiest city, Hilo, Hawaii (~126 inches). Driest: Death Valley, California (~2.2 inches); driest city, Yuma, Arizona (~2.5 inches a year).
Keep Exploring
This is the rainfall chapter of our extreme-places series. See the temperature extremes in the hottest places on Earth and the coldest places on Earth, the snow extreme in the snowiest places on Earth, the US rain picture in the rainiest cities in America, or browse all our weather records.
Sources
Mawsynram's average (11,872 mm) and Cherrapunji's single-year record (26,471 mm, 1860–61) are from the India Meteorological Department / Guinness World Records, as summarised on Mawsynram and Cherrapunji. The Colombian figures (López de Micay, Lloró, Tutunendo) are from Colombia's met service IDEAM and the López de Micay and Lloró records. Mount Waiʻaleʻale (~450 in) is from Britannica; Debundscha from national records. Dry-side figures: the McMurdo Dry Valleys and Quillagua / Atacama (0.5 mm/yr, 1964–2001; Arica's 172-month drought), Aswan from the climate of Egypt, and Death Valley from Britannica. US city figures (Yuma, Hilo) are from our own NOAA GHCN-Daily station analysis.