The Tricky Business of Counting Rain

NYT
"The number of water-monitoring stations around the world has declined steadily over the last quarter-century, and economic doldrums and a lack of resolve on the policy-making front could cause the trend to hold for years to come, researchers warn. This could deprive scientists and practitioners of data essential to immediate and long-term water resource management decisions, many argue. From 1989 to 2006, the number of stations across Europe fell by nearly half, from 10,000 to less than 6,000, according to a study published this month in the Journal of Hydrometeorology. (Half of the 6,000 are in Germany.) A far more precipitous decline occurred in South America, where the numbers dropped from nearly 4,300 to 400. The United States has witnessed one of the mildest contractions, while large swaths of Africa and Asia remain without a single gauge." (H/T Tom Nelson)