Driest Cities in Australia
Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent, and some of its towns barely see rain at all. These places sit in rain shadows, far from ocean influences, or in the heart of the red centre where the continental interior creates a permanent drought zone. But even within Australia's arid landscape, the differences are stark: some inland towns receive just 250mm yearly while tropical cities can see that in a single month.
This ranking uses annual total rainfall recorded across each location. We also break down rain days (how often it rains, rather than how much) and seasonal patterns, so you can see which places are reliably dry versus which ones surprise with sudden wet seasons.
Australia's driest city, Alice Springs, receives less rain than most deserts globally, yet it experiences occasional spectacular downpours. These flash floods are why Alice Springs straddles two worlds: parched for months, then briefly lush after rare rains. Across the inland red centre and much of Western Australia, rainfall is so sparse that annual totals rival Death Valley.
Full Rankings
Click any column header to re-sort. Data from Open-Meteo Historical Weather API (2024).
| Rank | City | State | Annual Rain | Rain Days | Driest Month | Avg/Day |
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Understanding the Rankings
Total annual rainfall is the primary metric here: it shows how much water actually falls throughout the year. Alice Springs averages 261mm, less than London receives in a single winter month. But what makes the inland truly dry isn't just the total: it's the rain days. Alice Springs experiences only about 38 days of measurable rainfall annually, meaning months pass without a drop.
Contrast that with Cairns in the north, which receives nearly 2,800mm annually but spread over about 150-160 days. Cairns gets more wet days than Alice Springs gets rain days in total. This difference explains why Cairns stays green and lush while Alice Springs remains a desert.
The driest cities cluster in the inland: the Red Centre, outback, and interior of Western Australia. As you move toward coastal cities, rainfall jumps dramatically, especially along tropical (north and northeast) and temperate (southeast) coasts.
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About This Data
All weather data comes from the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API, which combines official weather station observations with reanalysis models to provide accurate data for any location in Australia. Data shown here is from the 2024 calendar year. Production rankings will use 10 to 30-year normals to smooth out year-to-year variation.
This page ranks cities by annual total rainfall in millimetres. 'Rain days' counts calendar days with at least 0.1mm of measurable precipitation. 'Driest month' is the calendar month with the lowest average rainfall.