US states by annual precipitation

Mississippi had the highest annual precipitation of 50 states in 2019, at 68.06 inches. New Mexico had the lowest, at 13.38 inches. The median was 46.02 inches and the figure for the United States was 34.82 inches. Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.

Highest68.06Mississippi

Lowest13.38New Mexico

Median46.0250 states

United States34.82History

Map of states, 2019

Under 25
25 to 37
37 to 46
46 to 50
50 to 54
54 and over
No data

inches, 2019. 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, 2019

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	2019 inches	Change on 2018
1	Mississippi	68.06	+1.9%
2	Tennessee	66.92	-0.3%
3	Arkansas	65.65	+2.1%
4	Hawaii	62.56	-36.2%
5	Louisiana	61.87	-6.8%
6	Kentucky	61.31	-3.8%
7	Rhode Island	57.11	-9.6%
8	Alabama	56.3	-12.6%
9	Connecticut	53.91	-13.3%
10	Missouri	53.82	+25.2%
11	Massachusetts	52.74	-13.6%
12	Florida	52.1	-13.9%
13	New Jersey	51.55	-20.4%
14	Vermont	51.4	+9.2%
15	North Carolina	51.15	-25.2%
16	Pennsylvania	50.78	-20.7%
17	New Hampshire	50.25	-3%
18	Maine	49.99	+7.6%
19	Illinois	49.86	+8.9%
20	Indiana	49.52	-1%
21	West Virginia	48.24	-25.9%
22	New York	48.22	-0.8%
23	Georgia	47.89	-21.2%
24	Ohio	46.87	-8%
25	South Carolina	46.03	-19.7%
26	Virginia	46	-27.6%
27	Oklahoma	44.98	+9.7%
28	Wisconsin	44.55	+12.1%
29	Maryland	42.7	-33.9%
30	Michigan	41.83	+15.6%
31	Iowa	41.63	-7.7%
32	Delaware	41.02	-31.7%
33	Alaska	38	+0.3%
34	Kansas	36.03	+13.1%
35	Minnesota	35.65	+18.5%
36	Washington	33.06	-20%
37	South Dakota	31.39	+35%
38	Nebraska	31.37	+7.4%
39	Oregon	30.03	+18.2%
40	California	29.12	+61%
41	Texas	26.86	-20.3%
42	North Dakota	24.39	+37.3%
43	Idaho	23.41	+7%
44	Montana	21.41	+7.2%
45	Colorado	18.91	+26.4%
46	Wyoming	18.34	+13.8%
47	Utah	16.94	+46.3%
48	Arizona	14.69	+25.9%
49	Nevada	13.81	+49%
50	New Mexico	13.38	+5.2%

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/22/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, 2019) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/22/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, 2019. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 6 Oct. 2026, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/22/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2019. 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, 2019. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/22/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2019.

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, 2019 [Dataset]. Available at: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/22/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2019 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{noaa_us_states_by_annual_2019,
  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, 2019}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/statewide/time-series/22/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2019. 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/22/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, 2019
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/22/pcp/12/12/1895-2025/data.json
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2019
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/annual-precipitation/us-states?period=2019.
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/22/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=2019" width="760" height="500" title="US states by annual precipitation, 2019, 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?

Mississippi, with 68.06 inches in 2019, according to NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.

Which state has the lowest annual precipitation?

New Mexico, with 13.38 inches in 2019.

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.