Bristol Has Been Crowned The Sunniest City In The UK – And That’s According To Met Office Data

I love a little staycation these days, especially with my finances currently the way they are. Instead of booking flights to Athens and Andalusia over summer, I’ve opted to save my pennies by just enjoying the best that Bristol has to offer. I’ve chosen wisely, too—because Bristol is the sunniest city in the UK.

As Bob Dylan once said: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” And right now (Friday, June 27), the sun is shining! And, as new data shows, that’s not uncommon in the South West. A study from Trtl Travel shows that Bristol gets 138.19 annual sunshine hours.

How did they work this out?

To determine the sunniest, hottest, and rainiest cities in the UK, Trtl Travel analysed the Met Office UK Climate Averages for: the total daily sunshine hours averaged over the year, the mean daily maximum and minimum temperatures, and the total yearly rainfall in millimetres.

What else did the data show?

Obviously, Bristol tops the list as the sunniest city in the UK—which is ideal for chilling by the Harbourside. But the South West city is also one of the country’s hottest. After Cardiff and London, Bristol is the third hottest city in the UK with an average temperature of 14.5°C.

Luckily, Bristol avoids finding itself among the UK’s rainiest cities, which is topped by Cardiff (the Welsh capital can’t catch a break, can it?) with an average annual rainfall of 100.27mm. But our friends across the Bristol Channel should be happy to hear it’s also the second-sunniest city in the UK—with 131.08 hours of annual sunshine.

The UK’s sunniest cities:

1. Bristol (138.19 hours of annual sunshine)
2. Cardiff (131.08 hours of annual sunshine)
3. London (129.95 hours of annual sunshine)
4. Birmingham (125.11 hours of annual sunshine)
5. Sheffield (123.76 hours of annual sunshine)

The UK’s hottest cities:

1. Cardiff (average annual temperature of 14.92°C)
2. London (average annual temperature of 14.64°C)
3. Bristol (average annual temperature of 14.5°C)
4. Nottingham (average annual temperature of 14.26°C)
5. Leicester (average annual temperature of 14.26°C)

The UK’s rainiest cities:

1. Cardiff (100.27mm of annual rainfall)
2. Manchester (99.77mm of annual rainfall)
3. Glasgow (96.12mm of annual rainfall)
4. Leeds (88.11 mm of annual rainfall)
5. Sheffield (69.3mm of annual rainfall)

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