Victoria tourist information

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the late 1700s, the Victoria area was home to several communities of Coast Salish peoples, including the Songish (Songhees). The Spanish and British took up the exploration of the northwest coast of North America beginning with the voyage of Captain James Cook in 1776, although the Victoria area of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was not penetrated until 1791. Spanish sailors visited Esquimalt harbour (within the modern Capital Regional District) in 1790 and again in 1792. Founded by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1843 as Fort Camosun (after the "camosack", a type of wild lily native to southern Vancouver Island) as a fur trading post, the settlement was later called Fort Victoria, in honour of Queen Victoria . The Songhees established a village across the harbour from the fort. The Songhees' village was later moved north of Esquimalt. When the crown Colony of Vancouver Island was established in 1849, a town was laid out on the site and made the capital of the colony. The Chief Factor of the fort, James Douglas was made governor of the colony, and would be the leading figure in the early development of the city until his retirement in 1864.

With the discovery of gold on the British Columbia mainland in 1858, Victoria became the port, supply base, and outfitting centre for miners on their way to the Fraser Canyon gold fields, mushrooming from a population of 300 to over 5000 literally within a few days. In 1866 when the island was politically united with the mainland, Victoria remained the capital of the new united colony and became the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871. Victoria was incorporated as a city in 1862. In 1865 Esquimalt was made the North Pacific home of the Royal Navy, and remains Canada's west coast naval base.

In 1886, with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway terminus on Burrard Inlet, Victoria's position as the commercial centre of British Columbia was irrevocably lost to the City of Vancouver. The city subsequently began cultivating an image of genteel civility within its natural setting, an image aided by the impressions of visitors such as Rudyard Kipling, the opening of the popular Butchart Gardens in 1904 and the construction of the Empress Hotel by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1908. Sir Robert Dunsmuir, a leading industrialist whose interests included coal mines and a railway on Vancouver Island, constructed Craigdarroch Castle in the Rockland area, near the official residence of the province's lieutenant-governor. His son James Dunsmuir became premier and subsequently lieutenant-governor of the province and built his own grand residence at Hatley Park (used for several decades as a military college, now Royal Roads University) in the present City of Colwood.

A real estate and development boom ended just before World War I, leaving Victoria with a large stock of Edwardian public, commercial and residential structures that have greatly contributed to the City's character. A number of municipalities surrounding Victoria were incorporated during this period, including the Township of Esquimalt, the District of Oak Bay, and several municipalities on the Saanich peninsula. Since World War II the Victoria area has seen relatively steady growth, becoming home to two major universities. Since the 1980s the western suburbs have been incorporated as new municipalities, such as Colwood and Langford. The thirteen municipal governments within the Capital Regional District afford the residents a great deal of local autonomy, although there are periodic calls for amalgamation.

Weather  ^*

Victoria has a sub-Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and warm, dry summers. Daily temperatures rise above 30 °C on an average of one or two weeks per year and fall below -5 °C on an average of only 2 nights per year. During the winter, the average daily high and low temperatures are 8.2 °C and 3.6 °C, respectively. The summer months are equally mild, with an average high temperature of 19.6 °C and low of 11.3 °C . Victoria does occasionally experience more extreme temperatures. The highest temperature ever recorded in Victoria was 35.3 °C on July 23, 2004, while the coldest temperature on record was -15.6 °C on December 29, 1968. Victoria has not recorded a temperature below -10 °C since 1990.

Thanks to the rain shadow effect of the nearby Olympic Mountains in Washington State, Victoria is the driest location on the B.C. coast, with much lower rainfall than other nearby areas. Total annual precipitation is just 608 mm at the Gonzales weather station in Victoria compared with 1,589 mm in Vancouver, 100 km to the north, and 3,671 mm at Port Renfrew, just 80 km away on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Even the Victoria Airport, 25 km north of the city, receives about 45% more precipitation than the city proper. One of the most striking features of Victoria's climate is the distinct dry and rainy seasons. Nearly two thirds of the annual precipitation falls during the four wettest months, November to February. Precipitation in December, the wettest month (109 mm) is nearly eight times as high as in July, the driest month (14 mm). During the summer months, Victoria is the driest major city in Canada.

Temperature - Yearly Average

Victoria averages just 26 cm of snow annually. Every few decades, Victoria receives very large snowfalls, including the more than 100 cm of snow that fell in December 1996. On the other hand, roughly one third of winters will see virtually no snow, with less than 5 cm falling during the entire season. When snow does fall, it rarely lasts long on the ground. Victoria averages just 2-3 days per year with at least 5 cm of snow on the ground.

The rainshadow effect also means that Victoria gets more sunshine than surrounding areas. With 2,223 hours of sun annually, Victoria is one of the sunniest places in British Columbia, and gets more sunshine than most other cities in Canada except those in the southern Prairies. Often there is a break in the clouds over the Victoria area. Pilots use this "hole in the clouds" as a navigation aid, referring to it as the "blue hole".