Inaccurate rain data from weather

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Jonathan Perkins

September 29, 2019 13:24

I spent the week watching my flowers start to dry up because the RainMachine thought we had two days of rain that we didn't get, and bypassed watering as a result. I suppose weather may be especially localized here in north Texas, but my rain sensor is connected and never activated once. 

I currently have only NOAA as my weather provider. Any suggestions on how to get more accurate weather data to the RainMachine? 

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• Official comment

  

  Rolando Soto October 04, 2019 17:18

  Hello, 

  On the WebUI, if you enable WUnderground as a weather service, leave the API key blank, and then add your closest station you will get measured rain values again. The API key is only for the forecast, which you can get from NOAA or ForecastIO. Whenever either of these services is wrong about the forecast the RainMachine will use WUnderground's measured values to make corrections for the next watering cycle. If you need further assistance please let me know and i can help you enable WUnderground. 

  Best Regards,
  Rolando
  RainMachine Support Team

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  Kelly Culhane October 03, 2019 15:51

  I have the same issue (also in North Texas). Awhile back I stopped using NOAA and switched to forecast.io and OpenWeatherMap. Neither seem to be great. Back when it was possible I used Weather Undergound and pulled from weather stations that were in my neighborhood. 

  I just now and went adjusted the Rain Sensitivity setting to have it be lower.

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  Jonathan Perkins October 04, 2019 15:04

  Thanks, I didn't know about that setting but have backed it off from the default 80% down to 60%. 

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  Jonathan Perkins October 18, 2019 00:54 (Edited October 18, 2019 00:56)

  Rolando, thank you for your comment. Using WUnderground as you suggested, I am getting an error as shown. Is that expected in this setup (i.e. without the API key)?

  

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  lanbrown October 18, 2019 01:18

  That is not normal.  Have you gone to WU and verified that data is being reported for that weather station?

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  Jonathan Perkins October 18, 2019 01:22

  Thank you, it resolved within a few minutes. 

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