Sunniest and Cloudiest Places for a Month of Remote Work, by Month

Which place is sunniest or cloudiest? It depends on the month

A list of the cloudiest cities in the world ranks a year, and you are not going for a year. You are going for a month, and the same place can be among the sunniest in one month and the cloudiest in another. So this page ranks every place we track (except Madeira, whose cloud figures we are re-checking) by cloud cover for four months that cover the year: January, April, July and October. Each month shows the five places with the least cloud, then the five with the most.

Year-long lists answer a trivia question: which city has the fewest sunshine hours over twelve months. For a nomad that is the wrong one, because you book four to six weeks, usually to get away from winter or avoid a monsoon. The sunniest place in July is not the sunniest in January, and the cloudiest swaps hemispheres and monsoon seasons as the year moves.

Cloud cover here is a model value: the share of the sky covered, averaged over 2015 to 2025 at one point per place. It is not sunshine hours, and a place with a lot of cloud can still be bright and warm. That is why every table also shows the average high and the rain days, so you can tell grey and dry from grey and wet. A rain day is a day with at least 2 mm of rain, or 4 mm in the tropics, as explained on our methodology page.

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Where is sunniest and cloudiest in January?

Santiago is the sunniest place we track in January and Ubud the cloudiest. In January the south of the world is in summer and the Indonesian islands are in their wet season, which puts Santiago, Perth and Goa at the sunny end and Ubud, Canggu and Lombok at the cloudy end.

If you want a sunny January, the first table is where to look; our where is warm in January guide adds warmth to the filter. If you are drawn to Bali in January, read the Bali rainy season guide first: Ubud and Canggu are two of the cloudiest places in the table.

Where is sunniest and cloudiest in April?

Dubai is the sunniest in April and Medellín the cloudiest. April is the shoulder between seasons: Dubai, Goa and the Mexican coast stay clear, while the Colombian highlands and the Andaman coast of Thailand fill with cloud.

On the Thai coast the April cloud comes with highs of 31 to 32°C, while Bogotá (19°C) and Medellín (26°C) are cloudy but mild. Cloud means something different at 19°C than at 32°C.

Where is sunniest and cloudiest in July?

Santorini is the sunniest in July and Goa the cloudiest. July is the clearest case of why a yearly ranking fails: the Mediterranean is almost cloudless and the monsoon covers South and Southeast Asia.

The sunny end is also the hot end, with highs above 30°C in most rows, which is a real issue for working indoors without air conditioning. The cloudy end is the monsoon: Goa, Chiang Mai and Bangkok are among the greyest places in July.

Where is sunniest and cloudiest in October?

Dubai is the sunniest in October and Medellín the cloudiest. By October the Mediterranean has cooled while Dubai is still hot and clear, and the tropical coasts are deep in their wet season.

Dubai leads the sunny table by a wide margin. At the other end, Medellín, the Thai coast and Costa Rica are the cloudiest places of the month.

How to use this for a month of remote work

Pick the month first, then read both tables. Three rules of thumb:

• Sunny and mild is rare. The sunniest places in July are hot, and the sunniest in January and April usually trade a little warmth for clear skies.
• Cloudy is not always wet. Cloud with few rain days, such as Medellín in January or Hua Hin in July, is grey but workable. Cloud with many rain days, such as Goa in July or the Thai coast in October, is the tropical wet season.
• A month is not a year. Many of the places in the cloudy tables are excellent in another month. Use our destinations pages to see the other eleven months of any place.

To put any set of places side by side for the month you will be there, use the compare tool.