Would a rain sensor benefit me?
My unit is using both the NOAA and a local WUnderground station (very close to my home) weather service and I have enabled the Rain Restriction setting in my programs as well as Weather-Adaptive Watering.
I'm trying to understand whether adding a rain sensor will benefit me or whether it's really not necessary, particularly since the WUnderground station is so close to me?
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My Rainmachine does a really nice job with the larger weather patterns, but you could potentially benefit from a rain sensor, since Rainmachine only checks in to WUnderground something like every six hours to update the forecast, which is no way near granular enough for the purpose of shutting irrigation down upon sudden, localized rainfall. Where I live, thunderstorms generate very local, very heavy rainfall (which can also take down power and/or Internet). For me, I've found that a rain sensor is the only reliable way for my Rainmachine to capture this type of rainfall, and I have a WUnderground station on my roof.
The answer to your question probably depends upon where you live, and how sudden and localized your rainstorms tend to be.
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RainMachine will also refresh weather before starting a program if weather information is older than 1 hour. The problem is that Wunderground is not so reliable recently and it reports observed data only for yesterday. If forecast fails it might start during a rain but this will be corrected at the next irrigation run as we do "Forecast Correction" for this kinds of events.
In my opinion a rain sensor is required only when you have city regulations that can fine you if you irrigate during rain and you have a really local weather. In general this is an unlikely event.
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