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Driest City in Each U.S. State

December 15, 2021

What's the driest populated place in each state of the United States? We took a look at NOAA data from 1991–2020 to find the cities and towns that received the least precipitation in an average year. Here's what we found.
2.82 inches (7.17 cm)
Imperial is the driest city in the United States, but crops are still grown there due to irrigation from the Colorado River. Pictured above is the Salton Sea, a man-made and highly saline body of water.
3.43 inches (8.71 cm)
Another unlikely center of agriculture, Yuma, like Imperial, is situated on the Colorado River.
4.05 inches (10.3 cm)
Pioneers on their way to California dreaded crossing the Forty Mile Desert which surrounds Fallon, Nevada.
5.39 inches (13.7 cm)
The world's three largest deserts are, in order, the Antarctic, the Arctic, and the Sahara. Barrow, officially known as Utqiagvik, sits in the second of these deserts.
5.59 inches (14.2 cm)
5.91 inches (15.0 cm)
7.20 inches (18.3 cm)
The Evergreen State? It depends. Much of Eastern Washington is covered by scrubland.
7.36 inches (18.7 cm)
7.38 inches (18.8 cm)
7.97 inches (20.2 cm)
8.68 inches (22.1 cm)
8.80 inches (22.4 cm)
9.41 inches (23.9 cm)
10.0 inches (25.5 cm)
14.5 inches (36.8 cm)
14.7 inches (37.3 cm)
15.3 inches (38.9 cm)
16.2 inches (41.1 cm)
16.5 inches (41.9 cm)
22.1 inches (56.0 cm)
26.3 inches (66.7 cm)
28.7 inches (73.0 cm)
29.8 inches (75.7 cm)
30.1 inches (76.5)
33.6 inches (85.4 cm)
33.6 inches (85.4 cm)
34.9 inches (88.6 cm)
35.1 inches (89.1 cm)
35.6 inches (90.4 cm)
35.8 inches (91.0 cm)
36.6 inches (93.1 cm)
38.4 inches (97.4 cm)
38.5 inches (97.9 cm)
38.9 inches (98.9 cm)
39.0 inches (99.1 cm)
39.2 inches (99.5 cm)
39.8 inches (101 cm)
40.2 inches (102 cm)
Key West is the driest place in Florida, even if the island once received 22" of rain in a single day during Hurricane Jeanne in 1989.
40.6 inches (103 cm)
41.8 inches (106 cm)
42.5 inches (108 cm)
43.6 inches (111 cm)
43.6 inches (111 cm)
43.7 inches (111 cm)
44.0 inches (112 cm)
44.9 inches (114 cm)
47.4 inches (120 cm)
49.5 inches (126 cm)
50.9 inches (129 cm)
51.4 inches (131 cm)
Hate rain? There's nowhere to hide in Louisiana, where even the driest place in the state gets a ton of it.