From 1886 to 1905 it was the Swansea Harbour Trust who were responsible for the collating and archiving of climatology records. There are, however, no details available as to the methodology they employed in the gathering of this information and the official metrological record for Swansea does not commence until 1908 when a weather station was built at Victoria Park, Swansea. A second station was established at Mumbles Head in 1959. More inland, most of Gower s recorded climatology data derives from rainfall measurements recorded between 1928 and 1960 at Penrice . More recently, an agro meteorological station has been established in Penmaen.
Earlier records are more sporadic and less detailed in their recording of precise data.
In 1839, local surgeon J. W. Gutch published a general pr cis on the area s climate in his work Medical Topography, Statistics, Climatology and Natural History of Swansea where he stated that The climate of Swansea is generally mild and a long continuance of clod weather of rare occurrence. The humidity is a source of much perplexity to the farmer during the hay and corn harvest and also causes considerable damage to various agricultural crops by the abundant growth of natural gasses which in consequence spring up, and which in the deep gravelly soils it is found almost impossible to eradicate from the arable lands. The surgeon later became both Editor and Treasurer of the British Meteorological Society in London. The area was generally thought of as possessing a healthy climate, despite the nearby copper smelting works that poisoned so much of the nearby land and air. John Jenkins, keeping brief climate records at The Royal Institution of South Wales between 1843 and 1846 concluded that the climate here was highly conductive to the health of persons affected with pulmonary complaints and desirable for the residence of the valetudinarian.