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.

% 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.