Non-"tropical" places with lots of sunshine? (statistics, beaches)

[SheRa]

Forgive me if this has been done before, but I recently moved from Florida to the Chicago area, and I've definitely missed the amount of sunshine I used to have in FL. Of course, "sunny" regions are often tropical (lots of palm trees, beaches, etc....Florida, southern California, Hawaii, and the like). Just out of curiosity, which parts of the U.S. get a good amount of sun, but aren't necessarily "tropical?" The only ones I can think of are Arizona, New Mexico, and maybe Northern California, and possibly Texas (though I've never been to TX).

*By "sunny," I mean it seems to be sunny more often than not -- this can come from either your own personal experience or actual statistics

[Rachael84]

Las Vegas and parts of Arizona. It hardly ever rains/snows in that area.

[WILWRadio]

Central and western Kansas. The sun shines around 300 days a year. Probably the same in the Plains of Colorado too.

[18Montclair]

The only tropical place in the US is Hawaii.

Palm Trees dont equate to 'tropical'.

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

The only tropical place in the US is Hawaii.

Palm Trees dont equate to 'tropical'.

In defense of the OP, I took the fact that the quote marks around 'Tropical' in the subject line implied tropical and sub-tropical climates which share a lot of climatological and ecological features.

Likewise, much of the "Desert" southwest is technically not desert, but Arid-steppe.

To answer the OP's question, most of New Mexico, Colorado, and even points north along the east-slope of the Rockies receive a lot of sunshine and are quite arid as well as enjoying cool and cold seasons and are devoid of "Tropical" vegetation.


ABQConvict

[missionhome]

The Los Angeles area is not a "tropical" climate. It is officially recognized as a chaparral biome and the far inland areas like parts of the Inland Empire (Riverside County, San Bernardino County) are desert. The chaparral biome has a Mediterranean climate.

Palm Trees are not native to the area and are all planted here by mankind. They are able to grow here because of the mild weather, but it is not natural for them to be here.

I'm sure you have all seen on television the numerous fires we get in Southern California. You don't hear to much about fires in Miami. That is because the ecological community is totally different from Miami's tropical one. The chaparral community is dependent on fire for its plant species, but humans have caused the amounts of fires to increase, being harmful to some species which need 30 year long intervals between fires.


This picture shows what Los Angeles naturally looked like before it was covered in urban concrete. You still see this in the hills that surround the city. Sure isn't tropical looking if you ask me.

[SheRa]

I'm fully aware that palm trees do not = tropical. That is why I had quotation marks around the word tropical in my original post. (Often, unless the word is part of an actual quote, quotation marks indicate an uncertainty/skepticism with regard to the true meaning of the word. In other instances, a suitable word may not exist, and thus quotation marks can indicate a sort of "next-best" word. That would be the case in my original post.)

*Additionally, I was (quite obviously) not looking for replies that merely describe the climate of an area I may have mentioned.

[ckhthankgod]

I think the Denver area gets the most sunny days on average than any other metro area in the US.

[city_data91]

There's no way the Denver metro beats the Phoenix metro (after all, the Phoenix metro's nickname is the valley of the sun).

[leighland]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

Central and western Kansas. The sun shines around 300 days a year. Probably the same in the Plains of Colorado too.

definitley South Central and Western Kansas.