Marseille is the sunniest city in France, ahead of Toulon, Ajaccio, and Nice, with an average of 2,858 hours of sunshine and 170 sunny days per year. The city benefits in particular from the rise of the Azores high pressure and the mistral, which is particularly effective in chasing away clouds. For several years, the number of hours of sunshine has been increasing in southern France and not only in Marseille, which in 2017 broke the historic national record with 3,111 hours of sunshine. As a consequence, when the sun sets over Marseille, the inhabitants know that they are most likely to enjoy almost 8 hours of sun the next day.