When you go travelling, rain isn’t normally something you look for. Sunshine, yes. Snow, yes. Rain, no. But so many of the most beautiful places in the world are that way because of how much rain falls there. But did you know which cities around the globe receive the most rainfall in a year?
Budget Direct has done the research into the wettest cities in every country in the world and the results might surprise you. When we think of rainy cities, we tend to picture grim, grey industrial landscapes with cloudy skies and year-long drizzle, but as the top ten rainy cities in the world list shows, it’s actually much warmer and tropical cities that are the wettest.
The rainiest cities in the world
Far from the image of that dank and chilly Northern city, the top ten rainy cities are all close to the Equator, like Buenaventura in Colombia. A coastal city with year-round warm temperatures, it also has around 20 days a month where it rains, adding up to a total of 258 rainy days a year, making it the wettest city in the world, with the help of the Andes.
Akire gatuna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Colombia also has the second rainiest city with Manizales just one wet day behind. Found in the center of the country, it’s the main location for the production of Colombian coffee, helped by the wet seasons and its high altitude.
The rest of the top ten wettest cities also come from warmer climates, like San Vito in Costa Rica and Quito in Ecuador, which both have 253 rainy days a year, with dry seasons and very, very wet seasons. Ecuador also contributes Sangolqui and Banos to the top ten, while African cities Niefang, Micomeseng (both from Equatorial Guinea) and Douala (from Cameroon) also feature along with Indonesia’s Timika.
The wettest cities in every US State
Hawaii is known for many things, like its beaches, volcanos, hula dancing and tropical music. It should also be known for rain, with Hilo coming out on top of the pile for rainiest cities in the USA and North America as a whole. It’s the biggest city on the island and its location near Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea means that a lot of rain gets dumped on it across 211 rainy days.
America’s wettest cities ran the gamut of hot tropical locations and those that we might more normally associate with rain. Sitka in Alaska and Sequim in Washington fall into the latter category with 173 and 143 wet days respectively, but they’re followed by West Palm Beach in Florida with 131 rainy days despite its warm temperatures, beautiful beaches and palm trees.
At the other end of the scale there’s some more predictable names, like Elko in Nevada and Flagstaff, Arizona, which get just 59 and 69 rainy days a year because they’re literally in the desert. However, there’s also Langdon, North Dakota, known for its humid climate, but seemingly not for its rain, with just 73 wet days a year.
Why not check out the full data for every country’s rainiest cities to see what other surprises (and puddles) you’ll find?