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Old 06-26-2012, 02:59 PM
 
Location: Yorkshire, England
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I was wondering earlier which were the five countries with the most and the least sun (based on the annual sun hours of the median geographical point in that country) , but haven't been able to find a world sunshine hours map. Unless I've completely overlooked somewhere the five gloomiest would be a northwest European clean sweep, which according to the map below (which I accept is only an approximation and not 100% precise) would be:

1. Iceland
2. Scotland
3. Northern Ireland
4. Ireland
5. Norway





I've found a sunshine map of the island of Ireland (below) which contradicts the European map a little and shows Northern Ireland cloudier than the south:


It's complicated slightly with the question of the Faroe Islands and whether or not it is a separate country. If we were to include it then it would be number one, but although it does have its own international football team it's not generally considered to be a country in its own right, so without wanting to get into a political discussion I am not including it here.

As for the five sunniest then it becomes more difficult: I imagine some northeast African countries like Egypt, Sudan and perhaps Chad are in contention, as is almost any country on the Arab peninsula and perhaps Australia. These countries pose the problem of sparse/non-existent data and/or cloudier parts within a generally sunny country (i.e. Tasmania, southern Vic.) bringing the overall average down. In any case, I don't know enough about them to be able to form a judgement. Can anybody help?
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Old 06-26-2012, 03:24 PM
 
Location: Leeds, UK
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Gloomiest

Iceland
Scotland
Ireland
Northern Ireland
Wales
Norway
England
Netherlands
Belgium
Denmark
Sweden
Finland
Lithuania



Sunniest

Australia
Chad
Libya
Egypt
Algeria
Niger
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Old 06-26-2012, 03:54 PM
 
Location: Yorkshire, England
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dunno what to put here View Post
Gloomiest

Iceland
Scotland
Ireland
Northern Ireland
Wales
Norway
England
Netherlands
Belgium
Denmark
Sweden
Finland
Lithuania



Sunniest

Australia
Chad
Libya
Egypt
Algeria
Niger
I actually forgot all about Wales, even though I used to live there. Wales vs. Norway... I found the Met Office map which gives the median place in Wales somewhere in Wales around 1300 hours:


Tried to find a similar thing for Norway but the closest I could find was this list of places with their relatively high sun totals, which would be biased towards sea-level locations with more sun than the mountains making up a large chunk of the land area. I was surprised to learn that Jan Mayen and Svalbard (home of the gloomiest place on Earth contender, Bjornoeya) make up 15% of Norway's total land area. It's close.
Soltid - Meteorologileksikon
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Old 06-26-2012, 04:10 PM
 
Location: Wellington and North of South
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Should probably add Sudan as well. South Africa deserves investigation too.
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Old 06-26-2012, 04:17 PM
 
Location: Yorkshire, England
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RWood View Post
Should probably add Sudan as well. South Africa deserves investigation too.
Do you know if Australia has a median sun average figure available anywhere?
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Old 06-26-2012, 04:33 PM
 
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Isnt USA one of the sunniest??

I mean, USA is super sunny, and the sunniest places in the world are in USA, right??
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Old 06-26-2012, 04:40 PM
 
Location: Wellington and North of South
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SophieLL View Post
Isnt USA one of the sunniest??

I mean, USA is super sunny, and the sunniest places in the world are in USA, right??
With or without the 200-300 hours subtracted, the USA wouldn't match the 6 countries listed.
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Old 06-26-2012, 04:41 PM
 
Location: Wellington and North of South
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ben86 View Post
Do you know if Australia has a median sun average figure available anywhere?
Take a guess from here:

Australian Climate Averages - Sunshine Hours
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Old 06-26-2012, 04:52 PM
 
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RWood View Post
With or without the 200-300 hours subtracted, the USA wouldn't match the 6 countries listed.
what 200-300 hours substracted? i dont undertstand

and what are the numbers of the countries you listed? do you have a list of sunshine hours by country? would like to see that one!
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Old 06-26-2012, 04:58 PM
 
Location: Wellington and North of South
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SophieLL View Post
what 200-300 hours substracted? i dont undertstand

and what are the numbers of the countries you listed? do you have a list of sunshine hours by country? would like to see that one!
You should have been reading the threads regarding the accuracy of US sun stats. - the subject was done to death. But regardless of that, those countries listed would have sunshine means comfortably clear of 3000 hours - which the USA doesn't. (though possibly Algeria should be swapped for Mali of the likes of Saudi Arabia)
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