Tofino

The settlement acquired its name in 1909 with the opening of the Tofino Post Office, named after the nearby Tofino Inlet.[3] This geographical feature had been named in 1792 by the Spanish explorers Galiano and Valdés, in honour of Admiral Vicente Tofiño de San Miguel y Wanderiales (or Vanderiales), under whom Galiano had learned cartography.[4]

Tofino Airport, 11 km (6.8 mi) south of the town, is accessible to private and commercial aircraft. Floatplanes land on the inlet in town. Coastal fog is a common morning phenomenon in the summer, complicating access by air until the weather clears.

Tofino is located at the western end of Highway 4 that connects the community with Port Alberni and the population centres on the east coast of Vancouver Island. There are no roads connecting Tofino along the west coast of Vancouver Island, except to the nearby community of Ucluelet.

Boat services connect Tofino with coastal communities such as Ahousat and Hot Springs Cove. Wildlife-watching tour boats operate in the area. In October 2015, a whale watching vessel capsized off the coast of Tofino, which resulted in the deaths of 6 passengers.

The climate is marine west coast (Köppen: Cfb, clearly included in the temperate zone). Precipitation is concentrated in the winter, which is a characteristic of Coastal British Columbia; however, the annual amount of 3,270.7 mm (128.77 in) far exceeds nearby areas. By comparison, Victoria, British Columbia, which is located only 203 km (126 mi) away, receives only 607.6 mm (23.92 in).

Proximity to the Pacific Ocean keeps temperatures cool in the summer and mild in the winter. Average high temperatures in the summer and winter are relatively stable and cool, coming in at 19.1 °C (66.4 °F) and 8.1 °C (46.6 °F), respectively. Compared to the Canadian city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, which rests on a similar latitude, Tofino's average high temperature is 6.8 degrees cooler in the summer and a whopping 19.4 degrees warmer in the winter.

During the cooler season, there is a lot of precipitation, with 492.1 mm (19.37 in) in November alone. Nearly all of the precipitation that falls throughout the year is rain, with 203 days with rain and only 7.8 days with snowfall. Due to its location on the westernmost part of Vancouver Island, Tofino faces the Pacific Ocean, unimpeded by any mountains to the west (and therefore not subject to a rain shadow effect like much of the eastern island and the BC interior). Winter cyclonic storms frequently pass over the town deluging it with rain, making it one of the wettest locations in Canada. The month of November alone brings more precipitation to Tofino than that received for an entire year in parts of the BC interior such as Kamloops and Penticton.[12] Like the rest of coastal BC, summer brings relative dryness; even so, it still receives much more summertime precipitation than the interior (which can often be susceptible to drought-like conditions until the onset of autumn).[12]

The highest temperature ever recorded in Tofino was 33.9 °C (93 °F) on 15 July 1941.[13] The coldest temperature ever recorded was −15.0 °C (5 °F) on 30 January 1969.[14]

A cold front edge moving over Cox Bay

Tofino has modern cell phone and land line access (including Internet and ADSL).

Tofino has one newspaper, the Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News. Tofino Time is a monthly magazine that publishes local new and articles about Tofino and the surrounding areas. CHMZ-FM on 90.1 FM, nicknamed Tuff City radio, is a local radio station. Tofino also receives CBC Radio One via CBXZ-FM on 91.5 FM.

Public education is offered by the School District 70 Alberni, through the Wickaninnish Community School in Tofino and Ucluelet Secondary School in Ucluelet. The town's hospital is the Tofino General Hospital, operated by the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA).[16]

• Media related to Category:Tofino at Wikimedia Commons

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Tofino.