Nevada Is the Driest of Any State, Going by Its Five Largest Cities (2026)

Name: Driest cities and states by annual rainfall, The Honest Local
Creator: The Honest Local
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Nevada is the driest of the 51 states and territories we rank, going by its five largest cities, with 4.8 inches of rain a year (NOAA, 1991-2020). Arizona is next, with 8.6 inches of rain a year.

By The Honest Local · 51 states · every value links to its public source

4.8 inNevada leads on the list, the lowest reading of 51 states and territories

The top five states inches of rain a year

No. 1Nevada4.8 ininches of rain a year
No. 2Arizona8.6 ininches of rain a year
No. 3New Mexico9.3 ininches of rain a year
No. 4Idaho11.3 ininches of rain a year
No. 5Wyoming12.6 ininches of rain a year

Driest States on the map

Driest cities and states by annual rainfall, states hover for the numbers, click for every one

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Inches of rain and melted snow a year, from NOAA's 1991 to 2020 climate normals.

Driest States, all 51

The full ranking inches of rain a year

	Place	inches of rain a year
1	Nevada	4.8 in
2	Arizona	8.6 in
3	New Mexico	9.3 in
4	Idaho	11.3 in
5	Wyoming	12.6 in
6	California	13.9 in
7	Montana	14 in
8	Utah	14.8 in
9	Colorado	15 in
10	Hawaii	16.4 in
11	Alaska	20.4 in
12	North Dakota	21.6 in
13	South Dakota	24.9 in
14	Nebraska	30.6 in
15	Minnesota	31.2 in
16	Michigan	34.3 in
17	Wisconsin	34.5 in
18	Iowa	35.3 in
19	Washington	35.6 in
20	Kansas	36.3 in
21	the US Virgin Islands	37 in
22	Illinois	37.2 in
23	Oklahoma	37.8 in
24	Vermont	37.9 in
25	Oregon	38.2 in
26	Ohio	40.4 in
27	Texas	40.6 in
28	Missouri	41 in
29	New Hampshire	41.5 in
30	Indiana	42.7 in
31	Maryland	43.5 in
32	West Virginia	43.8 in
33	Massachusetts	44.3 in
33	Pennsylvania	44.3 in
35	North Carolina	44.5 in
36	Delaware	44.8 in
37	Connecticut	45.1 in
38	New Jersey	46.5 in
39	Virginia	47.3 in
40	Rhode Island	47.5 in
41	Maine	47.7 in
42	Arkansas	48.2 in
43	Georgia	48.4 in
44	Kentucky	48.6 in
45	New York	48.7 in
46	South Carolina	49.1 in
47	Tennessee	52.2 in
48	Florida	54.5 in
49	Alabama	55.8 in
50	Mississippi	56.7 in
51	Louisiana	59.2 in

Sources and method

NOAA 1991 to 2020 monthly climate normals · 1991-2020

How we got this. We add up NOAA's twelve monthly precipitation normals, 1991 to 2020, at each city's nearest airport station that reports them. A state is the population-weighted mean of its five largest cities, not NOAA's statewide figure, so it reads where most people live. Cities and states rank on their own lists. It refreshes when NOAA reissues its climate normals.

Rankings by The Honest Local from public data, one page per list, refreshed on each source’s own cycle. Places with no reading are left out rather than estimated. Every value on this page carries its source in the page’s structured data.