European Cities With the Driest Weather

Athens clearly leads the pack as Europe's least rainy major city. Over a year, Athens averages the lowest amount of precipitation at 365 millimetres (14.4 inches) and the fewest wet days at 43. By any measure, that puts Athens well out in front of the next driest cities. Volgograd typically has 43 more millimetres (1.7 inches) precipitation and Marseille has 10 more rainy days annually.

Here you'll find lists of Europe's major cities with the driest climates overall, including rankings for the least rainy and snowy five cities in Western, Northern, Eastern and Southern Europe. The ratings are based on the total precipitation, both rain and snow, a city receives during an average year.

Overall, Europe's ten driest cities usually get less than 530 mm (21 inches) of precipitation a year. Cities with dry weather can be found scattered across Europe, from Spain to Russia and Denmark to Greece.

The rankings are for 70 major European cities which include national capitals plus cities with a metropolitan population of over one million people. You can also see the full list of European cities and their precipitation totals that these rankings are based on.

Annual precipitation a year on average for Europe's ten driest major cities

City	Inches	Milli­metres
Athens, Greece	14.4	365
Volgograd, Russia	15.9	403
Madrid, Spain	17.2	436
Odessa, Ukraine	18.3	464
Skopje, Macedonia	18.7	474
Warsaw, Poland	20.3	515
Marseille, France	20.3	515
Copenhagen, Denmark	20.6	523
Kharkiv, Ukraine	20.7	525
Prague, Czech Republic	20.7	526

Driest Cities by European Region

Among Europe's regions, the driest cities get similar amounts of precipitation. But how often it rains or snows, as measured by the number of days with at least one millimetre (0.04 inches) of precipitation, differs remarkably.

Dry climates near the Mediterranean tend to have their rain come down in concentrated storms. Whereas cities in northern Europe which average the same amount of precipitation see it land gently over many more days. For instance, Copenhagen's 523 mm is spread out over 102 days, whereas Marseille gets it's 515 mm in just 53 days.

Western Europe

Annual precipitation a year on average for Western Europe's five driest major cities

City	Inches	Milli­metres
Marseille, France	20.3	515
London, United Kingdom	21.9	557
Berlin, Germany	22.5	571
Paris, France	25.1	637
Vienna, Austria	25.6	651

Northern Europe

Annual precipitation a year on average for Northern Europe's five driest major cities

City	Inches	Milli­metres
Copenhagen, Denmark	20.6	523
Stockholm, Sweden	21.2	539
Riga, Latvia	25.0	636
Helsinki, Finland	26.9	682
Vilnius, Lithuania	26.9	683

Eastern Europe

Annual precipitation a year on average for Eastern Europe's five driest major cities

City	Inches	Milli­metres
Volgograd, Russia	15.9	403
Odessa, Ukraine	18.3	464
Warsaw, Poland	20.3	515
Kharkiv, Ukraine	20.7	525
Prague, Czech Republic	20.7	526

Southern Europe

Annual precipitation a year on average for Southern Europe's five driest major cities

City	Inches	Milli­metres
Athens, Greece	14.4	365
Madrid, Spain	17.2	436
Skopje, Macedonia	18.7	474
Valletta, Malta	21.8	553
Pristina, Kosovo	23.5	598