Which departments got the best of the sunshine in France in 2015?

The table below shows the number of sunshine hours in the top twenty sunniest departments of mainland France for 2015.

The top spot went to the Bouches-du-Rhône (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), which heads the table on a consistent basis.

Indeed, not surprisingly, at a regional level Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur takes the laurels, with their departments sharing between them half of the first ten places in the list.

The west coast of France fared less well last year compared with 2014, with two departments in the Poitou-Charentes region (Charente and Charente-Maritime) and two departments from the Pays-de-la-Loire region (Vendée and Loire-Atlantique) dropping out of the top 20 in 2015.

The year was also notable for the higher level of sunshine throughout France, with an national average level of sunshine of 2,110 hours, compared to an average of 1,961 hours in 2014 and an abnormally low 1,819 hours of sunshine in 2013.

Several departments not in the top twenty list for 2015 recorded the hottest days in the year of +40°C, ie, Dordogne (Aquitaine), Haute Vienne (Limousin), Lot (Midi-Pyrénées), Isère (Rhône-Alpes) and Puy-de-Dôme (Auvergne).

The driest department in France last year was once again the Pyrénées-Orientales (Languedoc-Roussillon), with 411 millimetres of rainfall. The national average was 691 millimetres of rain.

Highest rainfalls in the year were recorded in the Alps, with the department of Savoie recording 1,215 mm of rainfall and the Haut-Savoie showered with 1,144 mm of rain.

Many French departments are large, with different climate zones within them, so the table should be used only as a general guide.

Source : Météo France