For channel 4, they built a diorama containing a rain gauge, barometer, thermometer, wind gauge, and clock, pointed a videocamera at it, and launched the first weather channel.

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And we were camped on a little sandbar, made a rain gauge, and the river was rising at the rate of one inch every 20 minutes, if you can believe that.

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"It would be most useful for countries where they don't have much rain gauge data or weather radar - in Africa for instance, they do have mobile phones, at least in areas where the population density is high enough, " he told BBC News.

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