The ten Sunniest Cities within the U.S.

Key takeaways

• El Centro, Yuma, and Lake Havasu Metropolis are the sunniest cities within the U.S., seeing almost cloudless skies for almost 300 days per yr.
• America’s sunniest cities are largely positioned within the Southwest, within the Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan Deserts. 
• Whereas heat climate has drawn folks to the Solar Belt for many years, the sunniest cities within the nation can have main local weather dangers.

Are you craving some vitamin D or in search of a change of surroundings? Nicely, you’re not alone. For the reason that pandemic, dwelling consumers and distant employees throughout the U.S. have been transferring to sunnier cities looking for heat and affordability. Cities within the Solar Belt – a area stretching throughout the southern third of the U.S. – have usually been the hottest locations, dwelling to loads of new housing and world-class winter climate. 

This pattern continued in 2026, whilst dangers of utmost climate grew, influencing housing markets throughout the nation. 

So, in case you’re contemplating a transfer to a sunnier metropolis however aren’t certain the place to look, we’re right here to assist. Redfin compiled an inventory of the sunniest cities within the U.S. to assist information your determination. Learn on to see which locations topped the checklist, what to contemplate earlier than packing your baggage, and how you can discover your excellent dwelling.

The sunniest cities within the U.S.

El Centro, Yuma, and Lake Havasu Metropolis are the sunniest cities within the U.S., seeing almost cloudless skies for over 270 days per yr. Whereas El Centro sees barely extra clear days, Yuma is the sunnier metropolis by most measures.

Please see the methodology for a way we decide a “sunny” day, and what number of doable sunshine and photo voltaic radiance imply. 

When measuring by season, desert cities are sunniest from April by way of June, earlier than the monsoon season begins in late summer season. The sunniest cities later in the summertime are additional north in California, led by Truckee and Chico.

Briefly: If you need probably the most general daylight and heat year-round, head to Yuma; if you would like one moreover sunny day, head to El Centro. 

Why are these cities so sunny?

Almost the entire sunniest cities within the U.S. are positioned within the American Southwest, within the scorching and dry Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan Deserts. These locations are sunny for 2 major causes:

• They’re positioned in a subtropical high-pressure zone, which is a phenomenon that happens at round 30° in latitude each north and south of the equator that helps create lots of the globe’s deserts. 
• They’re in a rain shadow behind a number of mountain ranges. 

Let’s break down just a few notable cities to know their climates.

Yuma is generally cited because the sunniest metropolis on the earth. It receives over 4,000 hours of daylight per yr, in response to the World Meteorological Group, greater than desert cities in Egypt and Namibia. In line with our estimates utilizing current NASA knowledge, Yuma sees daylight for about 89% of all sunlight hours (~3,950 hours) – a decrease worth, however nonetheless the very best within the nation and certain the world if we expanded the identical measurement globally. Yuma’s scorching, dry, sunny local weather has helped it grow to be an agricultural chief for sun-hungry crops like lettuce.

El Centro, in California’s fertile Imperial Valley, has a largely an identical local weather to Yuma, though it’s a bit drier. El Paso is the one metropolis on the checklist positioned within the Chihuahua Desert, which helps it see lots of the similar patterns as Yuma and Phoenix.

Lastly, Oxnard has a few of the greatest climate within the nation, dwelling to a sunny and funky Mediterranean local weather. It sees utterly clear skies for almost a 3rd of the yr, by no means will get too scorching or too chilly, and has very low humidity. Close by Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo have comparable climates. All three cities are among the many costliest locations to reside within the U.S., although.

Why sunshine issues when selecting the place to reside

Sunny climate is undeniably nice when it’s not too scorching. It might make spending time outside simpler, encourage an lively life-style, and enhance your temper. That is one purpose why cities throughout the Solar Belt have been attracting new residents not too long ago.

The Solar Belt has truly been a well-liked spot for dwelling consumers for over 60 years, serving to cities within the area develop quickly over the time. Individuals have lengthy been drawn to new financial alternatives and rising communities. 

Nevertheless, that reputation has come at a price. The pandemic-era migration increase despatched dwelling costs hovering in lots of Solar Belt cities, pricing out native consumers and making once-affordable markets more and more costly. Now, as demand cools, costs are falling in a few of those self same cities, giving consumers extra negotiating energy.

However decrease dwelling costs don’t essentially imply decrease housing prices. Rising insurance coverage premiums and HOA charges, particularly in Florida, are including 1000’s to the price of homeownership, whereas local weather dangers like excessive warmth, hurricanes, and flooding are pushing some residents out. Earlier than relocating someplace sunny, it’s price trying past the floor and weighing the complete price of residing there.

In case you’re seeking to transfer, you’ll be able to discover how a lot daylight a person property will get immediately on Redfin.com. Merely click on on any dwelling to see its typical day by day sunshine hours, or discover a simulated 3D mannequin for a extra detailed have a look at solar publicity all through the day. You can too test a property’s local weather dangers, common month-to-month temperature and precipitation, and extra. Redfin companions with Shadowmap, the Climate Firm, and First Avenue (now owned by MSCI) to show this knowledge for almost each property within the U.S.

>> Learn: The place Ought to I Dwell? 10 Inquiries to Assist You Resolve

Methodology

Sunniness is usually divided into three classes: sunny, principally sunny, and partly sunny. Daylight is just measured from dawn to sundown. 

• Sunny: lower than 1/eighth of the sky is roofed with clouds
• Largely sunny: 1/8-3/8ths of the sky is roofed with clouds
• Partly sunny: 4/8-5/8ths of the sky is roofed with clouds

To find out the “sunniest” cities, we ranked U.S. metropolitan areas (“cities”) with populations over 100,000 primarily based on their mixed common annual variety of “sunny” and “principally sunny” days. 

We additionally included every metropolitan space’s % of doable sunshine and photo voltaic irradiance, although these didn’t issue into the rankings. 

• The % of doable sunshine is calculated by dividing the estimated minutes of recorded sunshine that reaches the bottom by the full doable sunshine minutes from dawn to sundown. We estimated this by combining NASA’s month-to-month clearness index and the Angstrom–Prescott relation with commonplace FAO-56 coefficients, mixed throughout 12 months and weighted by sunlight hours.
• Photo voltaic irradiance (“photo voltaic vitality”) measures the energy of the daylight that reaches the bottom in kWh/m²/day, indicating how sturdy the solar is. Locations farther from the equator will usually see decrease values as a result of the solar sits decrease within the sky.

All knowledge comes from NASA Energy from 2001-2025 into a complete or common month-to-month worth. NASA Energy measures world atmospheric circumstances utilizing satellite-derived knowledge on a 1° x 1° grid (roughly 110km x 85km). Resulting from its breadth, metros that had been nearer to one another generally obtained an identical values. When this occurred, we grouped them collectively beneath the biggest one.