From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for August 3, 1989:

Area residents who were hanging on every word of weather forecasters during this summer’s dry spell were lacking official numbers from an overnight rainfall. Lawrence had received an unofficial .15 of an inch of rain during the morning hours, but official recordings were unavailable because of problems with a rain gauge at the Kansas University Weather Service. Ed Levy of the KU Weather Service said he had been authorized by the National Weather Service earlier this week to move the service’s rain gauge from an area behind Malott Hall to the roof of the building. Levy had requested the move, he said, because he thought a nearby tree was partially blocking rain that could fall into the gauge. However, when the gauge was moved, it had been mistakenly placed near an air-conditioning unit, which blocked the device from rainfall and would have recorded in inaccurate reports, Levy said. Levy added that he planned to contact the NWS to request that the gauge again be moved.