Always the people call the Mediterranean that it is among the places with the best climate in the world.
And this, of course, is not accidental.
Not only, it enjoys a long, hot summers and short, mild and easily bearable winter, but the Mediterranean region is also among the sunniest places.
Phrases such as “sunny Greece” or “sunny Spain” are not just templates with which various sites and magazines try to promulgate their articles or to sell excursions.
The two sunniest capitals in Europe are Madrid and Athens
Both cities enjoy around 350 sunny days per year.
These capitals experience only about 15 days in which the sun does not broke through the clouds and most of those cloudy days are during the rainy season, especially in December.
However, it is difficult to assess which of the two capitals is more favor by the warm Mediterranean sun.
It is believed that this is Athens, but the weather varies over the years and in some years Madrid has much more sunny days and vice versa – in other years the palm of leadership belongs to Athens.
However, the difference in the number of sunny days between the two cities is usually not more than 5 days per year.
The advantage of Athens is that it is located at 37° north latitude, and Madrid is located at 40° north latitude.
Moreover, Athens is located in the eastern Mediterranean, which experiences traditionally much less the influence of the Atlantic Ocean and always receives less precipitation in comparison with the western Mediterranean and the sky is very clear.
Madrid, however, also does not remain behind.
The cosmopolitan Spanish capital is situated amidst a semi arid area away from the Mediterranean coast and here the clouds in the sky are almost unbelievable.
Otherwise, Madrid and Athens do not tolerate competition.
These two capitals are sunnier than Lisbon and Rome and even from Nicosia.
As a comparison, San Diego, which is located in the southern parts of California enjoys 260 sunny days per year.
The same applies to Los Angeles.
San Francisco enjoys about 265 sunny days, but this is insufficiently to be serious competitor of Madrid and Athens.
Sunlight, which is abundant in the both capitals helps to the local people to avoid the winter depression, enhances their health and thus improves the quality of life.
There are many other advantages to live in a sunny location such as Athens and Madrid.
One of them is the possibility of obtain larger amounts of solar energy by individual households through solar panels.
