The Sahara Desert is a dry place, but just how dry was shown in the region of Tidikelt, a gravel-surfaced section of south central Algeria, where they once went for ten years without a single drop of rain.
Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island. There has been no rainfall there for two million years.
Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, is at the other end of the scale. One day in 1952, it experienced a rainfall that when done, totaled 74″ over 24 hours. That kind of outshines, or maybe outdrips, the 26.12″ record for 24 hours, set in 1943 at Hoegees Camp, in L.A. County.
Of course, if you want to talk being really wet, Cherrapunji in northern India was inundated by an incredible world record 1,042″ in the year spanning 1860-1861.
How about a quick “shower”? Barot, Guadeloupe recorded 1 1/2″ of rain in 60 seconds, on Nov.26, 1970. Fussen, Bavaria also got wet in a hurry, sloshing around in a hair over five inches of rain in only 8 minutes, on May 25, 1920.
