US Counties With the Lowest Cloud Cover
3,144 US counties ranked by cloud cover, from lowest to highest. First are Yuma County, AZ (23.8%), La Paz County, AZ (25.4%) and Imperial County, CA (26.2%). The middle one of the 3,144 has 54.2%.
What this measures
The share of the sky covered by cloud, in percent, averaged over the whole year, night as well as day. NASA estimates it from weather satellites for squares of land about 60 miles across, so nearby counties often share a value. It starts in 2001, since the older satellites measure cloud differently. Cloud cover, clear days and sunlight come from the same satellite data, so they are not separate evidence about each other. Source: NASA POWER (Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources).
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 lowest counties
Every state, lowest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona | 30.7% |
| 2 | New Mexico | 39.2% |
| 3 | California | 41.7% |
| 4 | Nevada | 42.9% |
| 5 | Oklahoma | 47.6% |
| 6 | Kansas | 49% |
| 7 | Texas | 49.1% |
| 8 | Colorado | 50.3% |
| 9 | Florida | 50.5% |
| 10 | Arkansas | 50.8% |
| 11 | Hawaii | 51.5% |
| 12 | Louisiana | 51.7% |
| 13 | Mississippi | 51.8% |
| 14 | Nebraska | 52.1% |
| 15 | Missouri | 52.1% |
| 16 | Utah | 52.8% |
| 17 | South Carolina | 53% |
| 18 | Alabama | 53.4% |
| 19 | Georgia | 53.5% |
| 20 | North Carolina | 53.5% |
| 21 | Tennessee | 55.7% |
| 22 | Virginia | 55.7% |
| 23 | Iowa | 56% |
| 24 | District of Columbia | 56.1% |
| 25 | South Dakota | 56.2% |
| 26 | Wyoming | 56.3% |
| 27 | Idaho | 56.6% |
| 28 | Delaware | 56.7% |
| 29 | Maryland | 57.5% |
| 30 | Illinois | 57.7% |
| 31 | Kentucky | 58.3% |
| 32 | New Jersey | 59.1% |
| 33 | Indiana | 59.3% |
| 34 | North Dakota | 59.4% |
| 35 | Oregon | 59.8% |
| 36 | Minnesota | 60.3% |
| 37 | Connecticut | 60.6% |
| 38 | New York | 61.1% |
| 39 | Washington | 61.5% |
| 40 | Rhode Island | 61.6% |
| 41 | Massachusetts | 61.7% |
| 42 | Pennsylvania | 61.7% |
| 43 | Montana | 62% |
| 44 | Wisconsin | 62.4% |
| 45 | West Virginia | 62.8% |
| 46 | New Hampshire | 63.4% |
| 47 | Ohio | 63.9% |
| 48 | Michigan | 64.4% |
| 49 | Maine | 64.9% |
| 50 | Vermont | 69.3% |
| 51 | Alaska | 74.3% |
More on cloud cover
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.