Sunny Weather in US

Sunniest US Cities

The major cities in United States with the most sun year round are Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson and El Paso. They all receive sunshine for well over 80% of the time between sunrise and sunset.

It gets even sunnier during July and August in Fresno and Sacramento, California, where sun shines 96% of the time and all but nine days in those two months have mainly clear skies. During winter though, clouds move in and both cities see sun for less than half of the daylight hours.

Meanwhile on the California coast, the pattern reverses. San Diego, another of the top ranking US cities for sunshine, gets more sun in winter than in summer.

In most other urban centers throughout the US, February is the dullest month. The brightest spot at that time is El Paso where half the days in February are mostly clear and 82% of the time it's sunny.

Average annual sunshine in the sunniest major US cities.
City % Sunshine Clear Days
Phoenix, Arizona 85 211
Las Vegas, Nevada 85 210
Tucson, Arizona 85 193
El Paso, Texas 84 193
Fresno, California 79 194
Sacramento, California 78 188
Albuquerque, New Mexico 76 186
Los Angeles, California 73 167
Denver, Colorado 69 115
San Diego, California 68 146
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 68 139
San Francisco, California 66 160

% sunshine is the percentage of time between sunrise and sunset that sun reaches the earth's surface.
Clear days is the number days a year when clouds cover less than one-third of the sky on average.