Where in the World Gets the Fewest Sunny Days — and Which City on Earth Sees the Sun Least Often

In Moscow, people complain about gray winters; in St. Petersburg, about gray skies year-round. But there's a city where the sun appears for an average of just two and a half hours a day — and locals consider that completely normal.

The feeling of "overcast again" is familiar to almost anyone living north of Voronezh. But there's a difference between a week of gray skies in the middle of November and an entire year where total sunshine adds up to less than Moscow gets in a single summer. Let's break down where on the planet the sun shows up least, why that happened, and how people have adapted.

How "Sunniness" Is Actually Measured

Meteorologists don't work with "sunny days" (a vague concept — how many hours of sun does a day need to count?) but with duration of sunshine — total hours in a year when the sun isn't obscured by clouds. That figure is what allows cities to be compared against each other.

For reference: Moscow gets about 1,730 hours of sunshine a year, Sochi gets 2,150, and Dubai gets 3,500. Now, let's look at the places that drew the shorter straw.

Tórshavn: The Cloudiest City in the World

The undisputed record-holder among settlements with regular weather monitoring is Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands (an autonomous territory of Denmark). The sun shines here for an average of 840 hours a year — roughly 2.3 hours a day. That's half of Moscow's total, and nearly a quarter of Sochi's.

The city sits on the Atlantic coast between Norway and Iceland, and its climate can be summed up in one word: clouds.

The warm North Atlantic Current keeps temperatures from dropping too far below freezing even in winter (average lows sit around 37°F), but that same ocean continuously generates cloud cover that blankets the sky nearly every day. A clear sky over the Faroes is an event locals catch and cherish whenever it happens.

Jan Mayen: Even Gloomier, But Almost Uninhabited

If you look beyond cities to every point on the map with a weather station, Tórshavn actually loses the top spot to Jan Mayen — a tiny Norwegian territory between Greenland and Norway.

It records about 823 hours of sunshine a year.

But Jan Mayen can't really be called a "city" — it has no permanent population, only a rotating crew of 18 people staffing the weather station and navigation equipment. So if we're talking specifically about a place where people actually live, Tórshavn, with its 22,000 residents, remains the undisputed leader.

Why the North Atlantic, Specifically

The pattern is visible on a map: nearly all the world's cloudiest cities sit along the North Atlantic and North Sea coasts — Tórshavn, Reykjavik, Prince Rupert in Canada, Birmingham and Cologne in Europe. The cause is a combination of three factors.

A warm ocean current continuously evaporates enormous quantities of water. Cold air from the north condenses that vapor into clouds. And the westerlies — the dominant winds of the temperate latitudes — drag that cloud cover eastward, blanketing coastlines and islands in a thick gray shroud. The result: skies stay overcast almost constantly, with clear spells that are brief and unpredictable.

What About Russia

In Russia, two places compete for the title of "cloudiest," and both sit far from the usual suspect, St. Petersburg.

Nikolskoye, the only settlement in the Aleutsky district of Kamchatka Krai, sits on Bering Island. Sunshine here runs around 992 hours a year — not much more than Tórshavn. The island is exposed to every wind the Pacific can throw at it, and fog and low cloud cover are the norm nearly year-round.

Murmansk, the largest city in the world above the Arctic Circle, logs no more than 71 sunny days a year (on top of a 40-day polar night, when the sun simply doesn't rise at all). Even once the polar night ends, the sky often stays overcast — the sun is technically up, but invisible behind the clouds.

St. Petersburg, often pitied for its grayness, actually isn't much of a record-holder at all. Its 1,630 hours of sunshine falls below Moscow's total, but runs noticeably higher than Murmansk's — and far higher than Tórshavn's.

How People Live in Cities Without Sun

A shortage of sunlight isn't just a matter of mood. Low UV exposure means the body produces less vitamin D, and insufficient daylight affects melatonin and serotonin production, both linked to a seasonal dip in mood and productivity.

Residents of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and northern Scandinavia have adapted to this over centuries. In Tórshavn, for instance, streets and public spaces stay lit with warm yellow lighting year-round, interior décor leans toward light tones, and windows are built as large as possible.

The culture of hygge — the Danish tradition of cozy home rituals involving candles and warm drinks — didn't emerge from nowhere: it's essentially a survival strategy for permanent cloud cover.

Is There a Link Between Cloud Cover and Rainfall

Not necessarily. An overcast sky doesn't mean it's constantly raining. Tórshavn gets around 1,230 mm of precipitation a year — a lot, but not a record (Sochi gets 1,600 mm).

The difference is that in Tórshavn, precipitation is spread evenly across the entire year: light rain or drizzle falls nearly every day, with genuine downpours being rare. Sochi, by contrast, concentrates its precipitation in the winter months, with clearer skies more common in summer.

Where the Sun Shines Most — For Contrast

The opposite extreme is Yuma, Arizona: 4,015 hours of sunshine a year, averaging 11 hours of sun a day — nearly five times Tórshavn's total. Among African cities, the leader is Aswan, Egypt, at around 3,860 hours. In Russia, Ulan-Ude is considered the sunniest, with over 2,400 hours — more than Sochi.

The gap between Tórshavn and Yuma is nearly 3,200 hours of sunshine a year. That's roughly the equivalent of a Faroese resident living through 130 fewer full days of daylight than an Arizona resident — every single year.

What This Adds Up To

If Moscow or St. Petersburg's winters feel unbearably gray, you're not wrong — but on a global scale, Russia's major cities aren't actually the worst off. Genuine sunlight scarcity begins on the islands of the North Atlantic and in Arctic settlements like Nikolskoye, where cloud cover isn't a seasonal inconvenience — it's a permanent feature of the sky.

That said, the people who live in these places prove that dim light isn't something you merely adapt to — it's something you can build an entire culture around, complete with large windows, warm lighting, and the ability to appreciate every sunny hour in a way a southerner never quite learns to.