Which places in the world can, or regularly go without rain or precipitation for one year? (climate, snow)

[markovian process]

I've read about the famous Atacama desert, the driest in the world where rain can often not fall for years.

But what other places in the world can get one full year without precipitation? Are the Arabian or Saharan deserts like that, deep in some places? It's hard to tell just based on stats where there are a few mm of rain a month if that reflects a climate where you can get rainless years followed by a few disturbances that dump a lot of rain some years, or if you get a few sprinklings a few days a year consistently but few or no years with no recorded rain whatsoever in human recording.

Does anyone know if many of the other deserts besides the Atacama get often totally rainless years?

[deneb78]

Aswan, Egypt only averages 1.4mm of rain a year. It's common to go entire years with out precip. there.

Aswan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Ethereal]

Definitely a place in the Arabian or Saharan desert (Aswan is one, as said above).

In some years, I think Lake Eyre (the driest part in Australia) and the Death Valley may also get at least than 5mm of rain, if not zero rain.

[AdriannaSmiling]

I think some of the valleys of Southern California might be able to go a whole year without rain during a massive mega-drought.

[Special_Finder]

There are the Atacama desert (as well as the cities which surround it) and the eastern part of the Sahara desert, which are actually considered as the driest places in the world with some locations receiving less than 1 mm of rain on annual average. Places such as Lima, Arica and Antofagasta for the South America (Peru and Chile) and Aswan, Luxor, Asyut, Sohag, Kufrah and Wadi Halfa for the Northeastern Africa (Egypt, Libya and Sudan) have an extremely low rainfall. There is also the Arabian desert, which is also very dry and some places receive less than 50 mm of rain on annual average. The Arabian desert is probably the second-driest hot desert and the third-driest desert on Earth.

[EverBlack]

I KNOW McMurdo Dry Valleys!!! Think about this: the ground has not snow, even if temperatures are below freezing year round.

And most of the Antarctic Plateau, I guess. Vostok and the South Pole can go a full year without precipitation, I think Concordia is the same.

[Special_Finder]

You're right. We often forget it but the Antarctica is is a desert but a really cold desert because it's a very dry area of freezing land. The precipitation are between 250 mm and even less than 50 mm in the hyperarid parts. That's really low!

[RWood]

Precip means at the South Pole amount to only a few mm, from data I've seen.

[Special_Finder]

Originally Posted by RWood

Precip means at the South Pole amount to only a few mm, from data I've seen.

So, it means that some parts of Antarctica make part of the driest places on the planet! After all, it's possible because I heard many times the Arctic and the Antarctica often receiving no precipitation for some years. I don't really know the actual precipitation average data for these spots but indeed, it seems to be some mm.