But per tradition, I’m making a new 50-questions blog on the same day every year as an open journal for how my life has changed over the years. Previous 50-questions: 4 gloomy weather factoids to brighten up your day! · 4:45am Nov 18th, 2024
#1 The cloudiest inhabited place on Earth is…a Studio Ghibli character?
It’s true! The cloudiest permanent settlement* on Earth is Totoró, Colombia! (Note the accent on the “o”). 
Located in the tropical high Andes of Colombia, the town receives a shockingly low 637 hours of sunshine per year. That’s an average of 1.7 hours of sunshine per day, and half the annual sunshine hours of gloomy Glasgow, Scotland.
Located at high elevation in the tropics, Totoró is chilly year-round and is known for the cultivation of potatoes. No human-sized anthropomorphic cats unfortunately. 
#2 The driest national capital may surprise you.
It’s not Cairo, the capital of Egypt; Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia; or anywhere in the Arab world, for that matter.
It’s actually Lima, Perú.
Due to the cold Pacific Ocean currents in South America that discourage formation of thunderstorms, combined with the Andes blocking moisture from the Atlantic, Lima receives a paltry 0.25 inches of rain a year. By comparison, Cairo gets almost an inch of rain a year.
But if you’re expecting Lima to be a sunny desert paradise, don’t be disappointed when you get something more like San Francisco.
Source
Similar to how fog forms in San Francisco due to warm desert air inland condensing over the cold ocean water, Lima, which meets the Pacific Ocean and the cold Humboldt Current, is shrouded in marine fog, especially in (southern hemisphere) winter. Lima's cloudiest month (August) gets less sunshine hours than the cloudiest month in Glasgow, Scotland.
So while Lima may be “dry” in the sense it has less rain than Cairo, it’s actually very damp and foggy. 
#3 Winters in southern China and northern Vietnam are gloomier than Northern Europe.
Northern Europe and the Pacific Northwest have a reputation for gloomy winters, but southern China and northern Vietnam, with a much milder climate, has them beat.
Consider Chongqing, China (above), in the Sichuan basin, near sea level and at about 30N latitude (about the same latitude as Houston). It reports only 17 hours of bright sunshine in the whole month of January. 
That’s about as gloomy as January in Reykjavik, ICELAND 
…particularly impressive when you consider daylight in Reykjavik is much shorter than Chongqing due to the northern latitude. Summers in Chongqing are sunnier, but it still reports less than 1000 hours of bright sunshine per year, less than virtually all major cities in northern Europe. (Reykjavik, Iceland gets over 1300 hours of sunshine per year.)
Gloomy winters continue past the Chinese border and as far south as Hanoi, Vietnam, at 21N latitude (that’s the same latitude as Hawaii), with only 69 hours of bright sunshine in January. This is comparable to January in Vancouver.
The likely cause of this is the moist air from the tropical South China Sea meeting cold air blowing south from Siberia in the winter, and then condensing into clouds/fog. The Sichuan Basin, where Chongqing is located, is especially foggy due to being surrounded by mountains on all sides, creating stagnant air where fog can settle. Air pollution possibly plays a role, but even extremely air polluted cities like Delhi do not experience such a gloomy winter.
#4 A small sliver of the Arabian peninsula is covered in green forest…for a few months at least.
Would you believe me if I told you this picture is from the south of the Arabian Peninsula, in Oman?
Source
Most of the Arabian Peninsula is hot, arid desert. However, the south coast of Oman experiences a little-known and highly localized monsoon season called the “khareef”. During the khareef, the south desert coast of Oman becomes shrouded in thick fog, and gets just enough rain from to support seasonal forests in the mountains. These apparently draw in tourists looking to experience the novelty of greenery in a desert land (e.g. see image source).
While the khareef doesn’t bring a lot of rain, you can clearly see when the khareef happens by the dramatic drop in sunshine during July and August.
I hope this post helps you become as fascinated about weather as I am! 
You can read more weather factoids here here and here.
Disclaimer: All sources are hyperlinked and are current as of time of posting this blog. Regardless, this blog is intended for general interest only. Please do not cite my blog, or any pony-fiction blog, for your school project/academic paper. 
* Excluding Antarctic stations...who the hay wants to live in Antarctica anyway 🐧
As an added bonus game, you can comment describing the climate of any major city on Earth, and I'll try to guess the city you're thinking of
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The city I am describing has a reputation for fog hanging in the air owing to being located in a basin. This means that cloud and fog can completely obscure some of the skyscrapers that characterise the city centre. Historically, this city used to have severe problems with smog (a combination of smoke and fog), which is the origin of its nickname 'the big smoke'.
Will be citing this in my nonexistent weather paper. Thank you for the fun facts.
brb movin to peru
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I don’t know that nickname unfortunately and I won’t Google it to spoil the surprise. That said, this could describe almost any major city in a valley with a skyline.
Let me try just asking climate questions. Does the city experience below freezing temperatures in a typical winter?
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No. On average, temperatures reach a low of 4C (39.2F).
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Hay at least you might find gold if you’re lucky!
Arequipa, Peru has a much better climate if I’d have to pick a place in that country. If you’re a masochist you could also try La Rinconada, Peru, the highest settlement in the world where the water is laced with trash, mercury, and raw sewage!!
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it's London isn't it?
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(right?)
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Above freezing winters eliminates most of Europe and the continental US. Probably too cold to be Mexico City. It could be Santiago but since I know the exact mean minimum, I can figure out it’s LA
(Maybe I should have established some ground rules on what sources are fair game though sorry)
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The city's nickname (which you refuse to look up or use ig) is indeed the cheat code.
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spoiler?
5816741
If you need a clue, the city is in the UK.
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5816741
D'aww, I got it wrong?
If it is London, then I'm a bit confused because London does get below-freezing every winter (i.e. experiences frost every year). That's what I was thinking of when I asked "Does the city experience below freezing temperatures in a typical winter". Virtually all of the UK gets frost.
carbonbrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/MetOffice_AirFrost.gif
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The statistics I was following was average winter temperatures. Apologies for any confusion caused.
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tbh the big smoke was exactly what gave it away as London, that and the smog iykyk