US states by annual precipitation

Alabama had the highest annual precipitation of 50 states in 2017, at 64.19 inches. Arizona had the lowest, at 9.47 inches. The median was 42.83 inches and the figure for the United States was 32.29 inches. Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.

Highest64.19Alabama

Lowest9.47Arizona

Median42.8350 states

United States32.29History

Map of states, 2017

Under 20
20 to 37
37 to 43
43 to 47
47 to 50
50 and over
No data

inches, 2017. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: NOAA NCEI, NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide. Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.

All states, 2017

inches. Source: NOAA NCEI, NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	States	2017 inches	Change on 2016
1	Alabama	64.19	+42.6%
2	Louisiana	64.06	-4.5%
3	Mississippi	58.93	+10.9%
4	Florida	58.63	+9.8%
5	Hawaii	58.39	-16.4%
6	Tennessee	56.22	+19.5%
7	Arkansas	50.26	-0.4%
7	Kentucky	50.26	+2.2%
9	Georgia	49.8	+21.8%
10	New Hampshire	49.17	+24.3%
11	Rhode Island	49.11	+19%
12	Washington	48.73	-0.8%
13	North Carolina	47.96	-5.2%
14	New York	47.38	+24.1%
15	West Virginia	47.01	+3.6%
16	Massachusetts	46.82	+27.1%
17	Pennsylvania	46.61	+19.5%
18	South Carolina	46.57	+0.7%
19	Vermont	46.3	+19.9%
20	Indiana	45.61	+5.1%
21	Ohio	45.5	+21.7%
22	Maine	45.32	+9.6%
23	New Jersey	44.92	+13.5%
24	Delaware	44.53	-2.5%
25	Connecticut	44.1	+20.1%
26	Virginia	41.56	-8.5%
27	Missouri	41.45	+5.1%
28	Maryland	41.21	-1.1%
29	Michigan	39.27	+9.5%
30	Oklahoma	38.61	+23.8%
31	Alaska	38.06	+2.7%
32	Illinois	37.8	-4.9%
33	Wisconsin	37.57	-4.6%
34	Oregon	36.22	+4.4%
35	Iowa	32.35	-15.1%
36	Texas	30.28	-5.7%
37	Kansas	29.03	-5.4%
38	Idaho	28.83	+15.9%
39	Minnesota	28.3	-15.6%
40	California	28.17	+9.5%
41	Nebraska	25.34	+0.1%
42	Colorado	18.91	+10.7%
43	Wyoming	18.66	+8%
44	South Dakota	17.63	-14.7%
45	Montana	17.43	-17.7%
46	New Mexico	14.8	+14.4%
47	North Dakota	12.99	-40.5%
48	Utah	12.83	-8.6%
49	Nevada	11.17	+0.2%
50	Arizona	9.47	-22.9%

Other periods

About this ranking

Total precipitation from January to December, in inches: rain plus the water content of snow and other frozen precipitation. NOAA computes it from its climate divisional dataset (nClimDiv): station readings interpolated onto a 5 km grid and averaged over the area.

Values are area averages, not the reading at one weather station. NOAA revises the last two years every month.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the states are compared on one definition. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Climate at a Glance. NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide. From the NOAA Monthly U.S. Climate Divisional Database (nClimDiv), doi:10.7289/V5M32STR. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. (2026). NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide (US states by annual precipitation, 2017) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json

MLA 9

NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide, US states by annual precipitation, 2017. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 6 Oct. 2026, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2017. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. 2026. NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide. US states by annual precipitation, 2017. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2017.

Harvard

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (2026) NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide, US states by annual precipitation, 2017 [Dataset]. Available at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2017 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{noaa_us_states_by_annual_2017,
  author = {{NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information}},
  title = {{NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide: US states by annual precipitation, 2017}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2017. Publisher attribution: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Climate at a Glance. NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide. From the NOAA Monthly U.S. Climate Divisional Database (nClimDiv), doi:10.7289/V5M32STR. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
TI  - NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide: US states by annual precipitation, 2017
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
PB  - NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2017
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2017.
N1  - Publisher attribution: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Climate at a Glance. NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide. From the NOAA Monthly U.S. Climate Divisional Database (nClimDiv), doi:10.7289/V5M32STR. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/1/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -

Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2017" width="760" height="500" title="US states by annual precipitation, 2017, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank US states by annual precipitation using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"precipitation_annual","level":"region","within":"United States","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=precipitation_annual&level=region&within=United%20States&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which state has the highest annual precipitation?

Alabama, with 64.19 inches in 2017, according to NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.

Which state has the lowest annual precipitation?

Arizona, with 9.47 inches in 2017.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, NOAA Climate at a Glance, January to December precipitation, contiguous US and statewide. Retrieved 2026-10-12.