Hump Day Challenge: What is Australia's sunniest city?
It's sunny across virtually the whole of Australia today, and that got us thinking…
Where is Australia's sunniest capital city?
That's it. That's this week's challlenge. And we've got a sneaky feeling it's not as easy as it seems.
We’re talking, by the way, about the city with the highest average daily sunshine hours across all seasons.
We've listed the eight capitals in order below, but before you scroll down there and take a peek, we'll ask you to take a vote in this Twitter Poll:
Humpday challenge! â˜€ï¸ It's sunny across Australia today, so here's a question: What is Australia's sunniest city in terms of average daily sunshine hours across all months?
— Weatherzone (@weatherzone) May 19, 2021
Full story & answer at https://t.co/MufsPyLjFM
OK then, here it comes...
Image: Not the first picture ever published on the internet with a woman extending her arms at sunrise/set. Source: Pixabay
Yes, it's Darwin. Which may be a little surprising to many, because you'll recall from the story where we asked you to rank Australia's cities by annual rainfall, that Darwin is also the wettest Australian city.
- Darwin 8.5 hours/day
- Perth 7.9
- Brisbane 7.9
- Canberra 7.7
- Adelaide 7.0
- Sydney 6.8
- Melbourne 6.0
- Hobart 5.9
So how is our sunniest city also our wettest? How is the Top End capital at the top end of two seemingly contrasting meteorological tallies?
Mostly it's because of the dry season, during which Darwin can expect to have its full allotment of bright sunshine all day long. That bumps up the annual average big time.
And even in the wet season, some of the rainiest days might start bright and sunny before the thunder clouds roll in and darken the sky.
As for Melbourne and Hobart at the bottom end of the sunny rankings, there's also a bit of a contrast at play there, because those two cities rank third-driest and scond-driest on the rainfall list.
That's because both cities tend to be cloudy with frequent light showers that don't add up as quickly as the heavy downpours in places like Darwin, Brisbane and Sydney.