Gonzales Observatory - Victoria, BC - Weather Stations on Waymarking.com

The Gonzales Observatory is one of the oldest buildings in Victoria. It was built in 1914 as the Pacific Coast headquarters for the Dominion Meteorological Services (which is now part of Environment Canada). The first meteorologist stationed here was Francis Napier Denison, after which Denison Road is named. At one point, Denison had the dome and a telescope installed to allow for astronomical observations, but the telescope has long since been removed and those observations are no longer made. Environment Canada ceased manned operation of the station in 1989, and after several failed proposals, the site was finally purchased by the CRD in 1992 and the 1.75 hectares of land were turned into Gonzales Hill Regional Park. The land trust group The Land Conservancy (TLC) had a regional office in the building for many years, and the TLC head office moved there in September 2012.

Weather observations have been continuously recorded at the Gonzales site since August 10, 1898, making it one of the longest climate measurement records on the west coast of North America. Environment Canada still operates an unmanned weather station at the site to this day. There's a propeller anemometer mounted on the southeast corner of the roof of the building, and a fenced area beside the building holds a rain gauge and a Stevenson screen that contains a thermometer and a hygrometer. This site does not record barometric pressure. The station's WMO ID is 71200 and current conditions can be viewed at the Environment Canada website.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   11/04/2017 Lynx Humble visited it