[Ian Williams]

Well, why not lol Found this

http://www.independe...sun-542087.html

"Everywhere on the planet has the same sunshine potential," says Sean Clarke of the Met Office. In the far-from-cloudless UK, few places get close to their potential, while in the Arizona desert the skies are almost invariably blue. The chart on the right shows the where to be to worship the sun for every month of the year - you could amass almost 4,200 hours of sunshine.

One note of caution: strong, direct sunlight is dangerous. In the short term, you risk serious burns; longer term, extended exposure to ultra-violet rays increases the risk of skin cancer.

UNITED KINGDOM

England: the sunniest region in England is the south coast, which achieves around 1,750 hours of sunshine each year - an average of nearly five hours a day. Two resorts have traditionally battled it out for the hot spot: Eastbourne in East Sussex, and Bognor Regis in West Sussex. Eastbourne claims to have been the sunniest spot in mainland England last year, with a total of 1,868 hours, or five hours and seven minutes daily. But Bognor asserts that, over the past half century, it has been ahead of its eastern rival by a mean two minutes per day, with an average of 1,855 hours of sunshine annually.

Scotland: today, Lerwick in Shetland will enjoy four more hours of daylight than London. But its northern location, exposed to the full force of the Atlantic, makes it susceptible to cloudy weather. Glasgow takes the title for Scotland's sunniest city with an average of 1,400 hours per year (three hours 50 minutes per day). The country's sunniest destination is across on the east coast: Dunbar in Lothian enjoys 1,523 hours of sun per annum, or four hours, 10 minutes daily.

Wales: the hilly terrain and western location makes Wales cloudier than England. However, Dale Fort in Pembrokeshire achieves a respectable 1,718 hours of sunshine a year, which works out at four hours 12 minutes daily.

Northern Ireland: like Scotland and Wales, Northern Ireland has more cloud cover than England. Hillsborough in County Down has the most sun, reaching 1,340 hours per year (three hours 40 minutes daily). The sunniest months are May and June, with six hours of sun each day.

Channel Islands: the sunniest place in the UK is Jersey, with 1,914 annual hours of sunshine (five hours 15 minutes daily). Guernsey is a close second place with just three minutes fewer per day.

EUROPE

The area around Seville in Andalucia is nicknamed the"frying pan of Europe". The city is the sunniest spot in Spain, with 2,928 sunny hours each year (a shade over eight hours daily); in December and January you can expect only five hours a day, but on a typical day in June, July and August the sun blazes down for 12 hours.

Europe's sunniest place is not a Mediterranean resort but an Atlantic city. Faro, capital of the Portuguese Algarve, enjoys 3,170 hours each year (eight hours 40 minutes daily).

[Ian Williams]

And for just abit of confliction,

http://ezinearticles...urope&id=960266

The 3rd largest of all the Greek islands, and officially the sunniest place in Europe with over 300 days of sun each year, it is easy to see why Rhodes is one of the most visited islands in Greece.

[Mesogeiakos]

It's neither Andalucia nor Rhodes for that matter (though I do have a soft spot for Rhodes)...It's Southern Crete with almost 99% certainty!!

[Ian Williams]

Quote

Ian Williams - 26/3/2010 19:00

EUROPE

The area around Seville in Andalucia is nicknamed the"frying pan of Europe". The city is the sunniest spot in Spain, with 2,928 sunny hours each year (a shade over eight hours daily); in December and January you can expect only five hours a day, but on a typical day in June, July and August the sun blazes down for 12 hours.

Europe's sunniest place is not a Mediterranean resort but an Atlantic city. Faro, capital of the Portuguese Algarve, enjoys 3,170 hours each year (eight hours 40 minutes daily).

So what about Faro in Portugal as above?

[Mesogeiakos]

Let me find Southern Crete exact number which should be above 3200 hours.I think Southern Crete ranks very high internationally as well in terms of sunlight hours

[Mesogeiakos]

http://www.elgreco-i...town-hotel.aspx


IERAPETRA, the Southernmost City in Europe - Crete
Europe towards the sun...
Having the distinction of being the southernmost town facing the African coast, Ierapetra enjoys the smoothest, almost rainless weather in Europe, with a temperature that rarely drops below 12 C all year long!

Suprising Ierapetra...
Take a leisurely walk in the vivid center of the town along the coast, or into the quiet picturesque narrow streets of Kato Mera, the old town of Ierapetra.
Pick a handmade gift from any colourfull market stall and enjoy the exciting sounds of the busy Cretan life...

No doubt, Ierapetra "the bridge of the Libyan sea" is the sunniest holiday resort in Europe

[Mesogeiakos]

Ierapetra



http://www.dilos.com...e/ierapetr.html

The capital town of the district with the same name, with 10 000 inhabitants, is the largest town on the south coast of Crete and the southernmost of Europe.

Blessed with very mild climate, temperatures rarely dropping below 12 degrees centigrade in the winter, while the rain fall is extremely low. The average number of sunshine days exceeds 340 a year. The mild climate, favourable to agriculture is the important reason for the development of many green houses to the west of the town, producing off season vegetable for export in the main European markets.

[HSEA]

Not the Sunniest, but - The Atlantic coast of france seems impressive despite its close proximity to the UK

http://giteinvendee....ne-location.jpg

Places as far north as Nantes apparently get over 2300 hours annually apparently.

[Ian Williams]

Trouble is the Greek met office dont give sunshine records for Ierapetra, only temps, humidity, rain and wind so how can this be verified?

http://www.hnms.gr/h..._region_diag...

[Mesogeiakos]

Quote

Ian Williams - 26/3/2010 21:24

Trouble is the Greek met office dont give sunshine records for Ierapetra, only temps, humidity, rain and wind so how can this be verified?

http://www.hnms.gr/h..._region_diag...

I used to have a published article.I ll try to find it

[Mesogeiakos]

It turns out I was right regarding the sunniest location of Greece but not about the exact number of hours.

It turns out that Ierapetra apart from being the warmest city of Greece on average(and probably warmest city of Europe) also has an average annual sunshine duration of 3101.5 hours (according to the data published by the Greek Met office) and Rhodes comes second in Greece with 3043.2 annual sunshine hours

The table for all the Greek cities can be found in page 6 of the link below

http://www.urbanclim...2005_cyprus.pdf

Can we have an official reading regarding Faro's sunshine from a verifiable source?I tried everywhere but the Portuguese met office does not have data on sunshine hours and I thing someone who is native in Portuguese might be able to find published material regarding this

[Dave K]

I don't know if this is to be believed as the source is a collection of one-liners without any citation for origin but...

"Ben Nevis in Scotland is the Cloudiest Place in the World as the percentage of Maximum possible sunshine is 16% and the average annual hours of sunshine a year is 736 hours."

I also found a reference that Manchester was the cloudiest city in Europe back in 1960 with only 960 hours /year sunshine  - which was attributed to pollution having a great influence.

However, the Met Office stats show Ringway has 1394 hours sunshine per year in the 1971/2000 period. I would still suspect that somewhere in NW England has a good chance of being the cloudiest place in Europe.

[Ian Williams]

Quote

Mesogeiakos - 27/3/2010 12:09 It turns out I was right regarding the sunniest location of Greece but not about the exact number of hours. It turns out that Ierapetra apart from being the warmest city of Greece on average(and probably warmest city of Europe) also has an average annual sunshine duration of 3101.5 hours (according to the data published by the Greek Met office) and Rhodes comes second in Greece with 3043.2 annual sunshine hours The table for all the Greek cities can be found in page 6 of the link below http://www.urbanclim...2005_cyprus.pdf Can we have an official reading regarding Faro's sunshine from a verifiable source?I tried everywhere but the Portuguese met office does not have data on sunshine hours and I thing someone who is native in Portuguese might be able to find published material regarding this

The quote for Faro was from our own met office`s Sean   Clarke for Faro see first post, however more study is needed to pin down the resourse, its widely accepted on several sites that Lisbon is the sunniest capital in Europe so maybe Faro`s figure maybe true/

[protonplayer]

What a great article.  I've been searching for some global comparisons for sun data for a while.  But as some countries measure in hours per day and others annually it's hard to compare, let alone the language issues.

[Nigel Bolton]

Quote

Ian Williams - 26/3/2010 19:02 And for just abit of confliction, http://ezinearticles...urope&id=960266 The 3rd largest of all the Greek islands, and officially the sunniest place in Europe with over 300 days of sun each year, it is easy to see why Rhodes is one of the most visited islands in Greece.

Ahhhh!! That might explain why when we visited last October for a couple of weeks there was just some patchy cumulus over the inland hills one afternoon, and some more stratiform cloud for a time on our last morning. By the time we returned to Blighty I had almost forgotten what clouds were.

N.

[Mesogeiakos]

Quote

Ian Williams - 27/3/2010 20:35

Quote

Mesogeiakos - 27/3/2010 12:09 It turns out I was right regarding the sunniest location of Greece but not about the exact number of hours. It turns out that Ierapetra apart from being the warmest city of Greece on average(and probably warmest city of Europe) also has an average annual sunshine duration of 3101.5 hours (according to the data published by the Greek Met office) and Rhodes comes second in Greece with 3043.2 annual sunshine hours The table for all the Greek cities can be found in page 6 of the link below http://www.urbanclim...2005_cyprus.pdf Can we have an official reading regarding Faro's sunshine from a verifiable source?I tried everywhere but the Portuguese met office does not have data on sunshine hours and I thing someone who is native in Portuguese might be able to find published material regarding this

The quote for Faro was from our own met office`s Sean   Clarke for Faro see first post, however more study is needed to pin down the resourse, its widely accepted on several sites that Lisbon is the sunniest capital in Europe so maybe Faro`s figure maybe true/

It's beyond me how these sites give Lisbon the sunniest capital with 2750 hours of sunshine as far as I remember and forget 2806 hours of sunshine for Athens....

I would need to see Faro's official readings from the official portuguese authorities to feel at ease.BBC for example still quotes Seville with 50C.This is the trouble with second hand info always...

Officially we have 3101.5 hours the highest so far in Ierapetra in my opinion(I dont think I am biased just bsc I happen to be Greek)

[Adam D]

I can't believe the figures for Glasgow!

When I was studying there is the early 90s it always seemed to be wet and windy.

Also, Billy Connolly came from Glasgow and he said that Glaswegians never got tans they just went a whiter shade of blue :lol:

[Mesogeiakos]

Closest I could find quoting 3000 hours for Faro but again totally unreliable


http://www.lingue.ne...aro-weather.asp

Faro city is located in Algarve, this region of Portugal has four seasons well defined. Nevertheless, this region is also one of the warmest in Portugal, since usually there are 3000 sunshine hours per year. This region is one of the sunniest zones in Europe. Its climate is very influenced by the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean

[Adam D]

3000 hours of sunshine, bliss :D

As a SAD sufferer I would be HIGH as a kite on that amount of UV ;)

Why do I live in Scotland?

[Dave K]

Going slowly through MetO data compiling, generally 25 - 30 years average depending on available data, annual sunshine hours:


Ballypatrick NI: 1277
Armagh NI: 1192
Eskdalemuir Sco: 1174
Cwm Ystwyth Wal: 1112

So at the moment, West Wales is winning the UK's dullest place, but it's a pity that the number of locations are limited.  As for Europe as whole, any suggestions?  Ireland? Norway?  It's complicated by the fact that some locations above the Arctic Circle will have little or no sunshine for months then the possibility of near 24 hours sunshine in midsummer...