All I can say is that How do they measure snowfall? is one of Cecil’s funniest columns ever.
Yeah, but he got the Southern Hemisphere thing entirely wrong. Down here, 10 centimetres of snow equals 1 centimetre of water.
Sheesh.
Yes, but does that centimetre of water circle the drain clockwise or counterclockwise. 
The Washington Post recently ran an article about the official snow measurement for the Washington DC area. The electronic version isa avalable at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23110-2003Feb17.html
Except that the point of his word play was to reverse the situation (water vs snow), not jibe at inches vs centimeters (or centimetres if you prefer). It wouldn’t read as funny to also switch to centimeters.