LETTER: Sparse rain data for the Las Vegas Valley

Your Sept. 4 lead story had to do with the recent rain that resulted in some areas of Las Vegas getting flooded. It stated that the Las Vegas Valley does not have comprehensive valleywide rain gauge data, just a single official measuring station at Harry Reid International Airport. Makes you wonder about the accuracy of the information.

In fact, there is a valleywide measuring system for recording precipitation. The Regional Flood Control District has precipitation gauges that are updated every 10 minutes in approximately 125 locations throughout the valley. They just aren’t being used by the National Weather Service. Seems to me that the information from the gauges could be consolidated on a spread sheet that would more accurately record rainfall throughout the valley. Question is: Why haven’t they implemented a much more accurate system?