Based on the most recent World Bank data, the world’s wettest and driest countries are Colombia and Egypt, respectively.
The world’s wettest and driest countries are a study in opposites, ranging from countries with tropical rainforests to those with sand deserts in North Africa and the Middle East.
Based on the most recent World Bank data, Pallavi Rao of Visual Capitalist has mapped and ranked the nations with the highest and lowest average annual precipitation in millimeters in the figure below.
Ranked: Top 10 Wettest Countries
With an average of 3,240 millimeters (128 inches) of precipitation annually, Colombia is the country with the greatest precipitation totals.
With an average of around 12,000 mm (463 inches) of rain per year, the Tutunendo district is among the wettest in the world.
Sao Tome and Principe, however, is not far behind Colombia along the coast of Africa; in 2020, they will receive roughly 3,200 mm of rain.
Panama (2,928 mm) completes the top five with rainy season averages of over 3,000 mm in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Notably, all ten of the countries are located close to the equator and coastlines, where rising temperatures and high humidity provide an abundance of rainfall.
Ranked: Top 10 Driest Countries
On the other end of the spectrum, with an average annual rainfall of only 18 mm (0.7 inches), Egypt has the lowest rainfall of any nation. In contrast, Colombia receives about 180 times as much precipitation as Egypt.
Actually, all of the nations on this list of the driest in the world are found in North Africa and the Middle East.
Last year, GreatGameIndia reported that a climate reconstruction study revealed the Arctic has been impacting India’s monsoon for at least 1,000 years.
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It’s hard to measure a large country like the United States that has a wide range of climates, from Death Valley to Seattle.