Bird poop and weather station malfunctions

We recently heard from a superintendent who noticed that even though it was raining heavily, their rain gauge was recording a big fat zero. Although there are many possible explanations for this problem, it's always good to start with the simplest explanation. In this case, the superintendent checked the weather station's bucket and the screen at the bottom of the bucket, and found that the screen was plugged with bird poop. This was preventing some or all of the water…