How do I use Rain Stations?

Our weather data for the Rain Station tool comes from one of the best sources in meteorology, but it’s a virtual estimate. It’s not an actual physical rain gauge you stuck in the ground near your clover field. It’s a pretty darn accurate approximation, but spotty, unforeseen rainfall may not fully register immediately. Also, historical rainfall gets more accurate as the system has time to interpret the data, so you may see your precip totals revise a little bit as DeerCast seeks to deliver the most accurate information available. Follow the directions below to learn how to place, interpret, and modify Rain Stations on DeerCast.

How to Place a Rain Station 

1. To begin, open the Tools Menu on the DeerCast app. 
2. Select Rain Station, then slide the map to center the reticle where you want one, then tap Place Rain Station. They show up as a blue beaker with raindrops at the top.
3. Now that you’ve placed the Rain Station, give it a name and a quick description. The date is hardcoded to display whenever the Station was created.
4. Once you save the Rain Station, DeerCast will prompt you to turn on the Rain Station layer so you can see and access it, along with any others you’ve placed. Toggle the Rain Station layer on or off at any time by accessing the Layers menu in the upper right-hand corner of your DeerCast Maps screen.

How to Interpret Rain Station Data 

There’s a lot of information here, so let’s walk through these fields individually. Before we get
started though, please note the info buttons next to every field. We included quick example
descriptions to help you understand what each of these numbers represents.

• Starting here in the upper left and working our way across, and let’s assume it’s 3:48 in the
  afternoon. The last 24 hours shows rain fallen from the top of the current hour, to the top of the
  same hour yesterday, so precipitation from 3:00 PM yesterday to 3:00 PM today.
• Next up, the Current hour shows rain falling during, you guessed it, the current hour, so from our
  example of 3:48, this will display rain from 3:00 to 4:00.
• The last box on this row shows what’s coming in the next 72 hours. If we’re still assuming it’s 3:48
  in the afternoon, then this will forecast rain starting at 4:00 PM until 4:00 PM three days from now.
• The time frames on those fields are always the same. But if you want to select a custom time
  period to check rainfall, just scroll down a bit here to the Rain Checker area of the modal. Rain Checker is capable of providing both historical and forecasted precipitation amounts.

Example: Let’s say I planted a clover plot in April and I want to see how much rain it’s gotten, and what might be coming on the horizon. Well, I can select the day I planted, then go out as far as 14 days from today and see how much rain it’s gotten. With these dates selected, the Historical field will tell me what’s fallen from 12:00 AM on the Start Date I chose to midnight last night. The Current Day displays the rain fallen from 12:00 AM this morning plus what’s forecasted until midnight tonight. Finally, the forecasted field shows what’s forecasted beginning at midnight tonight through the date and time selected for the End date.

How to Modify an Existing Rain Station

Make changes to existing Rain Stations by selecting one, then tap the three vertical dots in the
upper right of their info box. Doing this allows you to choose the following tasks:

• Empty Gauge - selecting this option resets your cumulative rainfall to zero, just as if you
  were emptying out a physical rain gauge.
• Edit - selecting Edit allows you to rename the gauge and/or rewrite the description. You can
  also delete the rain gauge from this view.

Rain Stations are available with a DeerCast Elite+ or UNLIMITED subscription and are a game
changer for managing your ground!