Arica, Chile, in the northern
While the Atacama Desert of Chile and the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are arguably the two of the driest places on earth, there are many other places with similar climates.
The desert landscape surrounding Oodnadatta, Australia's driest town.
The Atacama is the driest place on earth, other than the poles. It receives less than 1 mm of precipitation each year, and some areas haven't seen a drop of rain in more than 500 years.
Chile is the place in the world which is known for the least amount of rainfall. The lowest average rainfall in Chile is found in the city of Arica. Average rainfall of Arica is 0.03 inch per year. Atacama Desert surrounds the city of Arica.
The wettest city in the world is Buenaventura, where it rains 258 days per year. Australia's rainiest city is Cairns in Queensland, with 117 days of precipitation. The UK's wettest city is Londonderry in Northern Ireland (147 days). The wettest city in the US is Hilo, Hawaii (211 days).
The rangelands of arid and semi-arid Australia
Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the world; 70% of it is either arid or semi arid land.
1. Yuma. Yuma is situated in the southwestern part of Arizona. In addition to being the sunniest and one of the warmest cities in the United States of America, Yuma is also the driest city in the country.
Death Valley, California, USA
This desert valley is located in the Mojave Desert of Eastern California and it currently holds the record for the world's hottest air temperature ever recorded.
The largest deserts on Earth are polar—the Antarctic and Arctic. The driest places on Earth are also cold deserts: Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys and Chile's Atacama Desert.
The city of Perth has the best weather/climate in Australia. The city enjoys a temperate Mediterranean climate with hot and dry summers and mild but wet winters. Perth is also the sunniest capital city in Australia and is considered one of the hottest experiencing over 250+ days of sunny blue skies.
Australia is so dry because we sit under the subtropical high-pressure belt, which encourages the air to push down, preventing the lift required for rain. Being under the high-pressure belt is enough to make it dry, but there are other systems called climate drivers that can make things worse from one year to the next.
Australia's exceptional aridity is the result of a unique combination of factors. Cold ocean currents off the west coast means there is little evaporation to form rainclouds, while the Great Dividing Range that runs down Australia's east coast prevents rain from penetrating far inland.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth, but humans dispersed rapidly through much of the arid continental interior after their arrival more than 47,000 y ago.
Photographer Amos Chapple returns to our site once once again, bringing amazing images from the state of Meghalaya, India, reportedly the rainiest spot on Earth. The village of Mawsynram in Meghalaya receives 467 inches of rain per year.
For those who don't know, Mawsynram in Meghalaya, India, is the wettest place on the Earth, with an average annual rainfall of 11,871 mm. Set some 15 km from Cherrapunji, this picturesque town in the East Khasi Hills district attracts travellers from across the globe.
1. Fairbanks, Alaska. With a minimum average temperature of about minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit, Fairbanks takes the cake as the coldest city in the U.S. The northernmost major city in Alaska, Fairbanks has seen record cold temperatures reaching minus 66 degrees in the past.
Welcome to winter in Yakutsk, the coldest city in the world. Residents of this notoriously frosty city, the capital of Russia's Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia, regularly deal with temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter.
World: Longest Recorded Dry Period
The world's lowest average yearly precipitation in 0.03" (0.08 cm) during a 59-year period at Arica Chile. Lane notes that no rainfall has ever been recorded at Calama in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Adelaide is actually statistically the driest of all Australia's capital cities with the rain being unreliable, light and infrequent throughout various times of the year.
South Australia is the driest state on the world's driest inhabited continent. With an arid landscape dominated by shrublands and dusty red soils, the twin spectres of drought and bushfire loom large in our collective psyche, an inevitable consequence of living in such a parched climate.
1. Portugal. Located on the Iberian Peninsula in the southwest of Europe, Portugal's climate is considered both Mediterranean and temperate maritime with mild summers and cool but not cold winters.
Great Victoria Desert (348,750sq.km) Great Sandy Desert (267,250sq.km) Tanami Desert (184,500sq.km) Simpson Desert (176,500sq.km)
South Australia is the driest of the Australian states. Only about one-fifth of the area receives annual precipitation of more than 10 inches (250 mm), and less than half of that has more than 16 inches (400 mm).
Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the entire world. Around 18% of the Australian mainland is desert. Most of Australia's deserts are located in the Western Plateau and the Interior Lowlands. Annual monsoon seasons cause huge amounts of water to fall on Australia's deserts.