Oldest weather station in the same location

The oldest operational weather station that has never been moved from its original location is at Kremsmünster Abbey in Austria. The instruments are kept in a screened box outside the window of the unheated Wetterkammerl ("weather room") in the Abbey's Mathematical Tower, a nine-story baroque edifice built in 1758 to support the monastery's scientific work. The earliest observation records from this site date to 1762. Today operated by Austria's Central Institution for Meteorology and Geodynamics, the Kremsmünster weather station has been making daily observations for 262 years.

The weather station at Kremsmünster has provided invaluable data for climate scientists. Because its location and configuration have not changed since the 18th century, its present-day readings can be compared to those from modern free-standing weather stations in the area. What this comparison has revealed is that the old Kremsmünster station tends to show a temperature around 0.38°C higher than the actual air temperature in the summer months. This means that pre-industrial temperatures were actually lower than the data would suggest, meaning the extent of global warming over the last 200 years is greater than previously thought.

This record is based on information gathered as part of the WMO's "Centennial Station" initiative, which recognizes weather stations that have been operational for more than 100 years. To qualify for recognition, the observing station must have continuous records of observations, and gaps in its records/periods of inactivity cannot add up to more than 10% of time since its founding. They can have been moved, but not to a location that significantly changes the data collected.