The Precip app and business platform automatically tracks rain amounts with extreme precision so you don't need to install or manually check a gauge. This guide serves as a simple overview of how the technology behind Precip works.

At the most basic level, we use high resolution radar, ground sensor, and climatology data processed through scientific models to estimate precipitation. We continually refine our data to be the most accurate and useful source for monitoring rainfall, snow, and other types of precipitation.

What goes into the analysis

We utilize data from multiple public sources, including 180 doppler radar stations and a quality controlled network of 10,000+ rain measurement stations.

That raw data gets processed through a series of scientific models that translate raw information into easy to understand rainfall amounts.

The final stage is creating a proprietary ensemble of the various model outputs to deliver the highest quality blend of low latency and highly refined data.

Precision and accuracy

Unlike most other weather data sources, Precip is able to provide an accurate representation of what actually happened at a specific location.

Although we do our best to provide the best possible accuracy, no rainfall estimate is perfect. In fact, rain gauges themselves can often provide inaccurate measurements. It is estimated that wind turbulence causes on average a 2-10% error rate when using gauges to measure rainfall. Our models account for wind and evaporation even though rain gauges do not.

Another important consideration is that while highly precise, our rainfall measurements quantify rainfall for an area of roughly one half mile squared, or 160 acres. Depending on the particular patterns of any given rainfall event, there could be varying amounts of precipitation even within an area that small. Our models will provide an average value for the area represented.