Official Rainfall--Say What?

Its early AM. Sitting on the back patio reading Tucson's daily paper. It rained again yesterday real hard and then a gentle rain during the night. We've got to get it now, because come September the "monsoons" are over. After that, we Tucsonians will just have to live with about 300 straight days of sunshine, no humidity and no bugs. Of course we do have snakes, scorpions, coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, hawks, eagles, and javelinas(look like a pig but are actually in the rodent family). Ah...paradise.

The paper says the "official" rainfall(measured only at the airport) so far in this "monsoon" season is below normal. Yet many areas around Tucson have received 8-11 inches of rain thus far.

It got me to wondering why cities only measure their rainfall at the local airports. Wouldn't it be far more accurate to have measurements at 4 locations? The local meteorologist would just have to learn how to add them together and divide by 4.

Anyone else bothered by this or do I just have way to much free time on my hands?