Quantitative knowledge of water vapor infrared absorption is crucial for remote sensing and climate simulations. The water vapor continuum is a major contribution to atmospheric absorption in the near infrared (NIR), but recent laboratory studies show inconsistent results and cannot be transferred to atmospheric conditions. Therefore, we performed atmospheric measurements of the NIR continuum (2500–7800 cm⁻¹) and found significant differences relative to the MT_CKD model and laboratory studies.