Yesterday’s forecast is not a rainfall total
Precip measures what fell with radar and gauges to be 60% more accurate than NOAA HRRR hourly totals and 275% better at detecting rain.
Last updated August 18, 2026
Observe the storm
180+ Doppler radars and a quality-controlled gauge network.
Updates as it happens
Past totals update live as rain gets measured.
High resolution
Hyperlocal cells instead of a county-wide guess at rainfall.
Don’t trust forecast-as-history
If the app only ever forecasted 0.01″, the “history” will too.
The mismatch people notice
It rains for hours. The phone weather app still shows a trace. That pattern shows up constantly in reviews of generic forecast apps: the model never caught the cell, so the saved “history” never does either.
What Precip does instead
Precip ingests radar and gauge observations, aligns them to hourly periods, and publishes an analysis at high resolution. The number on your location is an estimate of accumulation, not the last forecast before the rain started. Walk through the stack on how Precip works.
Climate data is not the same problem
NOAA climate normals tell you whether this month is wetter than the 30-year typical month. They do not tell you whether the thunderstorm hit the north field. For that split, read Precip vs NOAA climate data.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between observed rainfall and forecast history?
Observed rainfall is estimated from radar and gauges after (and during) the storm. Forecast history is the last model prediction, saved as if it were a measurement. Many weather apps show the second and call it yesterday’s rain.
Why did my weather app say 0.01 inches when it poured?
County-scale forecasts often miss convective storms. Archiving that forecast as history keeps the error. Precip rebuilds the hour from observations instead.
How does Precip compare with NOAA HRRR?
HRRR is a high-resolution forecast model. Precip’s hourly observed totals are 60% more accurate and 275% better at rainfall detection versus HRRR in a 2023 study against independent gauges. See how the data is made.
Are NOAA climate normals observed rainfall?
Climate normals describe what is typical over decades. They are not the storm that hit your field last night. See Precip vs NOAA climate data.
See what actually fell
Open Precip after the next storm and compare it with your forecast app.