Wettest Place on Earth

There seems to be some conflicting reports on where the wettest place on earth is. Some say the wettest place on earth is in Hawaii. Others reckon it’s wetter somewhere in India. Either way, these places are wet!

What I mean by the “wettest place on earth” is the place that gets the most rain fall per year. So this automatically rules out Antarctica. Although over 90% of Antarctica is ice (i.e. frozen water), it hardly rains there. In fact it’s one of the driest places on earth!

Anyway, here’s a list of some of the wettest places on earth:

  • Mount Wai-’ale-’ale, Kauai records an average of up to 13,000 millimeters of rain per year. Rain has been known to fall for up to 360 days per year!
    Mount Tutenendo, Colombia records up to 12,045 millimeters rain per year
  • Lloro, Colombia has around 13,299 millimeters rain per year. Note that this rain fall is an estimated amount according to The National Climatic Data Center.
  • Cherrapunji,north-eastern India gets an average rain fall of 10,820 millimeters per year. Note that most of this rain falls between June and August (known as the ’south-west monsoon’, or wet season).
  • Mawsynram, India has been quoted by the American National Climatic Data Center as having an annual average rainfall of 11,871 millimeters . BBC Weather has quoted 11,877 millimeters . Note that Mawsynram is not far from Cherrapunji.
  • Milford Sound in New Zealand gets an average of between 7,000 millimeters and 9,000 millimeters of rain each year. Also, Franz Josef Glacier is not far behind Milford Sound as far as rainfall goes. And I should know - I’ve experienced over 400 millimeters of it over night while sleeping in a tent there!

So, take your pick. If you’re looking for rain, any of these places should be able to deliver :)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 1:50 am and is filed under Climate & Weather, Environmental Analysis, Quick Facts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Wettest Place on Earth”

  1. Wettest Place on Earth gets Flood Protection | Natural Environment Blog Says:
    March 2nd, 2008 at 4:58 am

    [...] OK technically, there are some wetter places around, but at 8 meters of rain per year, Milford Sound is among the wettest places on earth. [...]

  2. kirill Says:
    August 28th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    you forgot to mention Mount Cameroon - one of the wettest places on earth, averaging around 10000 mm (10 meters!) of rain a year.

  3. Angam Says:
    March 31st, 2010 at 2:34 pm

    Well you guys forgot to mention the oceans,seas, lakes and rivers (dries up sometimes) where it rains and their beds are always wet!!!!

  4. Drusilla Urquilla Says:
    May 14th, 2010 at 5:36 am

    I have only just read your blog, but I can already say that I love it! Keep up the good work!