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Which is the driest climate in the world that supports a substantial population including a major metropolitan city with shopping malls, highrise buildings, etc? The metropolitan area (including surrounding small towns) would have to have a population of 500,000 people or more and have first world living standards.
Dry Valleys in Antarctica aside, the northern coastal Atacama desert has the lowest mean rainfalls. Over a century span or thereabouts Arica has averaged below 1mm/year. Over the later period 1996-2012 however its neighbour Iquique has had only 10.5mm in total, an average of 0.6 mm/year, and of that 9.5mm fell in 2002. In 11 of those years no measurable rain fell.
Antofagasta? Might not be first wold, but pretty close. 300,000 people
Its 30-year average is quoted as 1.7mm by MeteoChile. Both Arica and Iquique are quite significant cities as well.
The "first world" restriction rules out quite a number of very dry areas if you're being "fussy".
Antofagasta? Might not be first wold, but pretty close. 300,000 people
I think these are fairly civilised places though.
If we're looking for the driest major metro centres, perhaps we should focus on cities with population over a million, in which case Lima could be a serious contender.
The driest places on Earth are the Atacama desert and the surroundings as well as the hyperarid part of the Sahara desert, more accurately the Eastern desert, which includes the desert areas of central and southern Libya and Egypt. Some desert cities such as Aswan, Luxor, Sohag or Asyut in Egypt are extremely dry and receive less than 1 mm of rain annually. Arica, or Antofogasta are also a part of the driest cities in the world.
Which is the driest climate in the world that supports a substantial population including a major metropolitan city with shopping malls, highrise buildings, etc? The metropolitan area (including surrounding small towns) would have to have a population of 500,000 people or more and have first world living standards.
The driest climate in the world with a large population is the Atacama Desert in Chile. Numerous cities there get less than 0.1 inches of rain in a year. Arica for example gets only 0.03 inches of rain in a year on average.
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