Sundial: Weather Watch Park

I've been contemplating a series of posts detailing visits to Seattle-area sundials. It seems like a good and reasonably solitary astronomical activity. Woody Sullivan, professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Washington, has set out to make Seattle the sundial capital of the world. He may be well on his way to success in this regard; he's created the Northwest Sundials website that features 21 dials in Seattle and many more around the state.

Sundial in Weatherwatch Park, West Seattle
Photo: Greg Scheiderer

I'm moved to begin this series because I came across one of the sundials on the list while out with my wife on a hike/walk on a lovely spring day recently. This dial is on a pillar in Weather Watch Park in West Seattle, a little street-end pocket park located at 4035 Beach Drive SW.

The park doesn't appear to be part of Seattle Parks and Recreation and is not listed on its website. Weather Watch Park was created in 1990 with funding from the Alki Community Council. The artwork on the site was created by Lezlie Jane, a local artist who has contributed to a number of similar installations in the area.

I snapped this photo with my iPhone camera at 12:43 p.m. PDT on last Thursday, May 28. The dial reads just a hair past 1 p.m. There are a couple of possible reasons for this discrepancy. First, sundials indicate solar time, not clock time. According to TimeandDate.com, solar noon that day came at 1:06 p.m., so the dial would be about six minutes behind. Second, the gnomon of the dial appears slightly bent, which would throw off the shadow some. Finally, solar noon here could be slightly different from what it is wherever TimeandDate.com calls "Seattle."

Many sundials feature a quotation. The one on this one reads, "Time is too slow for those who wait. Too swift for those who fear. Too long for those who grieve. Too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love time is eternity."

The site includes some historical and weather information for the site, a nice bench with a map of the Olympic Mountains across the sound, and a plaza with bricks of area settlers and, we presume, donors who helped fund the park.

Check out our article about Jane's work at nearby Constellation Park. We also wrote about her "Swimming Stars Plaza" and "Luna Girls on Alki" sculptures.