There’s something immensely peaceful about a rainy day, especially when you’re inside and cozy, listening to the rain patter down on the roof and watching nature’s hydration system breathe life back into dried-out foliage outside your door. Yet sometimes, rain can also be devastating and damaging, particularly when it falls in torrential quantities. 

In some places in the world, of course, heavy rain is a regular reality. People in these places have learned to adapt, developing systems that allow them to thrive amid routine downpours, but life here can pose many challenges. In the places on this list, rain is part of the landscape, shaping the geography and creating the conditions for a diverse array of flora and fauna to thrive. Read on to discover five of the wettest places in the world that people call home.

1. Mawsynram, Meghalaya, India
2. Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, India
3. Tutunendo, Colombia
4. Ureca, Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea
5. Debundscha, Cameroon, Africa

Mawsynram, Meghalaya, India

Located in the state of Meghalaya in northeastern India, Mawsynram experiences an average annual rainfall of 467 inches per year—a figure that places it at the top of the list of the wettest places on the planet. (For context, 467 inches per year is roughly twelve times the amount of rain Seattle experiences annually). Most of this precipitation occurs during the monsoon season, between June and September, when rain pours down daily. 

Here, the rains are critical for the region’s biodiversity and agriculture. Locals have also learned to work with the extreme precipitation, and often wear cone-shaped full-body umbrellas called “knups,” which are made of banana leaves and bamboo.

Additionally, the region is known for its innovative system of living bridges, which are made by carefully guiding rubber tree roots across rivers and gorges. This can take 10 or 15 years and can last for centuries. These bridges allow for transportation across the village’s many rivers and are ingenious alternatives to wooden bridges, which rot too regularly to be reliable. Mawsynram is also known for its lush forests, exotic wild orchids, and cave networks.

Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, India

Cherrapunji experiences an average of 463 inches of rain per year, placing it just behind Mawsynram in the running for the world’s rainiest places. Like Mawsynram, this village is located in the cloudy hills of Meghalaya, and it is also known for living bridges made of tree roots.

Additionally, Cherrapunji is noted for experiencing the highest amount of rainfall ever recorded in a single year—a whopping 1,042 inches fell there between August 1860 and July 1861. Known for its stunning waterfalls and verdant greenery, the village is also a center of trade and a gateway to the nearby mountains and forests that shroud this lush, extremely damp locale.

Tutunendo, Colombia

An average of 463 inches of rainfall descends on Tutunendo, Colombia each year, placing it at around the same level as Cherrapunji. This town is located in the Chocó department on Colombia’s Pacific side, and has not one but two rainy seasons.

Fewer than 1,000 people live here, but those who do have to contend with Tutendo’s high heat, dense humidity, and of course, the heavy rains. Here, precipitation plummets down almost daily, which leads to incredible biodiversity as well as occasional landslides and other challenges. 

Ureca, Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea

This island, which is located off the coast of Cameroon in the Gulf of Guinea, experiences an average of 411 inches of rainfall per year in its wettest portion. That would be the village of Ureca, which is located on the southernmost tip of the island and is known for its black-sand beach shrouded by plunging waterfalls as well as its torrential rainfall.

Bioko Island boasts a diverse rainforest climate and is home to a number of animal species found nowhere else on Earth, including nine endemic primate subspecies, some of which are critically endangered. Typically, the rainy season here lasts from April to October, but it can be densely cloudy, humid, and rainy all year round. 

The island was first colonized by the Portuguese in 1472, and it became a central slave trade hub in the 19th century. It soon became a prominent exporter of cocoa, coffee, oil, and timber. Today, thanks to its biodiversity, waterfalls, and black-sand beaches, the island is a burgeoning ecotourism destination—just bring your galoshes if you plan to go. 

Debundscha, Cameroon, Africa

The Cameroonian village of Debundscha receives roughly 405 inches of rain each year. Resting at the base of Mount Cameroon, which—at approximately 13,500 feet—is the highest peak in Central and West Africa, Debundscha experiences high heat and heavy rainfall that peaks between May and October. 

Here, wind sweeps hot air up the mountain, where it cools, turns into precipitation, and pours down hard on the town below—a phenomenon known as the orographic rainfall effect. The town is cloaked in lush green tropical forests that are often shrouded in dense mist, and villagers typically make their living by growing crops like bananas, palms, plantains, and other plants that can thrive in the area’s moist, fertile, often sopping-wet soil.

Read More: