Wired Rain Gauge
Would like to attach a wired rain gauge to RainMachine. This would be a more accurate measurement for my house than the weather stations near by.
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A few question, to understand your request better. Why not use your own integrated weather station (they typically have rain, temperature, wind measurement) instead? Some of them have network connectivity, and the RainMachine could connect directly to it. That would give you local rain measurement, and a lot more. It would also cost quite a bit more. I asked a related question (using data from a network-connected weather station locally) in this thread: https://support.rainmachine.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360012369793-Get-weather-data-from-Davis-Weatherlink
Why do you think having your own rain gauge would be more accurate than using the data from nearby personal weather stations? I think in most areas, rain is pretty uniform, and when it rains in your garden, it is probably also raining the same amount in the whole neighborhood. Having said that, I will immediately provide the counterarguments. First, personal weather stations can get inaccurate due to lack of maintenance or careless installation. Second: In hilly terrain, and in windy conditions, the amount of rain depends greatly on the exact placement of the rain gauge.
Our house is a good example: we are on a narrow ridge at 2000 feet elevation, facing the ocean. When we get a rain storm with high wind from the ocean, the side facing the wind (windward) gets easily 2x or 3x more rain than the shielded (leeward) side. That's particularly true in the wind shadow behind the house, which gets very little rain in such conditions. On the other hand, we are in the fog belt of the pacific ocean: while in the summer we get no "rain" (no precipitation falling from the sky, and a rain gauge that has open sky above it will measure zero water for about 4 months of the year, May to September), we are usually in fog at night and in the morning. Trees (in particular conifers) filter a lot of condensation out of the fog, and the soil below them and near them gets quite wet. I've measured 0.1" of water coming down in foggy nights underneath a big redwood tree. So what happens is that we have microclimates with widely varying rainfall, which are only 50 feet = 15m apart from each other. In such a situation, where are you going to place your rain gauge? But conversely, your own rain gauge (sensibly placed!) might well be much more accurate than a neighborhood weather station.
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