Wazzup Pilipinas!?
In a world obsessed with sunshine and blue skies, there exist cities cloaked beneath a near-perpetual veil of clouds. These places, where the sun is but a fleeting guest, are not mere gloomy outposts—they’re canvases painted in shades of gray, drenched in mist, and filled with a haunting beauty that feels otherworldly. While some travelers chase the light, others find mystique in the murk. From icy northern coasts to equatorial islands and mountainous hinterlands, here are seven of the cloudiest cities in the world, based on long-term sunshine data from World Atlas. Each one is a testament to nature’s ability to blur the line between the ethereal and the earthly.
7. Reykjavík, Iceland
Average sunshine: 1,236 hours per year
In Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital, the sun is a rare performer on an otherwise overcast stage. With only about three to four hours of clear skies daily, Reykjavík lives beneath heavy gray clouds for most of the year. The culprit? The North Atlantic Current, which sends warm sea air from the tropics clashing with Arctic winds. The result is a dramatic meteorological battleground of gusty winds, frigid showers, and omnipresent cloud cover. But Reykjavík doesn’t just survive under this brooding sky—it thrives in it, offering a stark, poetic contrast to its fiery geothermal landscapes and ice-blue glacial vistas. It's no wonder this land of fire and ice inspires myths, sagas, and soul-searching solitude.
6. Lima, Peru
Average sunshine: 1,230 hours per year
You might not expect a South American coastal capital to be wrapped in clouds, but Lima defies expectations. Positioned on the Pacific coast and swaddled in high humidity, Lima lives under a thick marine layer, especially during its winter months (June to September). In some stretches, the city sees less than an hour of direct sunlight per day. Yet out of this fog emerges beauty—quite literally. Locals call it cielo de brujas or “sky of witches,” referring to the mesmerizing sunsets that paint the clouds in fiery reds and eerie purples. The darkness here isn’t foreboding—it’s enchanting.
5. Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
Average sunshine: 1,176 hours per year
On the island of Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea lies Malabo, Africa’s cloudiest capital. With just a sliver over three hours of daily sunshine, Malabo wears its clouds like a constant shroud. Its tropical location means high humidity, and the long wet season from March to November makes rainy, storm-laden skies the norm. Even in the so-called dry season, the sun fights a losing battle against the marine mists and tropical squalls. But hidden beneath this gray dome is a lush, untamed landscape teeming with biodiversity—a verdant paradise veiled in shadow.
4. Dikson, Russia
Average sunshine: 1,164 hours per year
Dikson isn’t just one of Russia’s cloudiest places—it’s also one of its most remote and extreme. Situated on the frigid edge of the Arctic Ocean, this northern port town is buried under cloud cover about 98% of the time. Add to that the polar night in December and January, when the sun barely rises, and Dikson becomes a true frontier of twilight and tundra. Snowstorms, subzero winds, and haunting silence dominate the landscape. It’s a place where time seems to freeze, both literally and metaphorically—a city at the end of the world.
3. São Joaquim, Brazil
Average sunshine: 1,065 hours per year
Forget the sun-drenched samba stereotypes—São Joaquim paints a very different picture of Brazil. Tucked away in the highlands of southern Brazil, this mountaintop city at over 4,400 feet above sea level is one of the coldest in the country and a cloud magnet. With fewer than three hours of sunlight a day, São Joaquim often sees mist, fog, and even snow—an anomaly in tropical Brazil. The city is shrouded in a quiet mystery, a place where orchards bloom under gray skies and fog curls around old buildings like a secret kept by the mountains.
2. Chongqing, China
Average sunshine: 1,054 hours per year
Chongqing is a megacity buried in mist. Cradled between the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers and nestled in the Sichuan Basin, its geography traps humidity and pollution, forming a permanent dome of haze above the city’s 30 million residents. Chongqing sees an average of just three hours of daily sunshine—less in July, the peak of its steamy summer. Skyscrapers disappear into the low-hanging clouds, while the streets buzz beneath the diffuse, surreal glow of filtered daylight. Chongqing is a vertical labyrinth, at once futuristic and ancient, half-hidden in its own breath.
1. Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
Average sunshine: 840 hours per year
Topping the list is Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, where sunlight is more rumor than reality. With just 840 hours of sun annually, the city spends nearly 22 hours each day wrapped in a foggy dreamscape. Sitting in the storm-lashed North Atlantic, where cold air meets warm currents, Tórshavn’s skies are a swirling cauldron of mist, rain, and wind. July brings the densest fog, yet even amid the gray, bursts of brightness can surprise. The weather shifts on a whim here—you might leave a sunbeam behind and walk into a storm just down the road. The landscape is as wild as the weather: grass-roofed cottages, jagged cliffs, and mythic isolation.
The Beauty of Clouded Horizons
In a world that often equates good weather with sunshine, these seven cities defy the narrative. Clouds, after all, are not just atmospheric obstructions—they are sculptors of light, painters of sunsets, and keepers of mystery. From Tórshavn’s fog-wrapped fjords to the volcanic shadows of Reykjavík, these places remind us that beauty can exist—and even thrive—beneath a blanket of gray.
Sometimes, the most powerful stories are told in whispers, not shouts. And in the world’s cloudiest cities, the skies are full of secrets waiting to be felt, not just seen.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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