The bear thingie is a stake with a wooden bear on it, and the bear is holding a thermometer in one hand and a rain gage in the other, and there is a wind indicator sticking out of its head.
From the scienceblogs.com
More than two inches of rain fell in a single hour between 3 and 4 a.m. at an automated gage at the water treatment plant on Beatties Ford Road near the Brookshire Freeway.