Forecast incorrect in Canada

I have a Gen 3 that I have been using since they came out including a WFM. Previously had a Gen 2.
I use a PWS that is very close and precipitation seems accurate.
However, Rachio does not import the weather forecast from the WU PWS. When I look at the PWS, which is on WU, the forecast looks good. But the Rachio App doesn’t seem to read this and I invariably end up watering even with 80% chance of rain. Today was a 100% chance of rain and forecast of 0.75” but the Rachio calender showed 0% chance of rain and no precipitation.
This has been a consistent problem during my ownership of the Gen 3. The controller dumps tons of water on days that rain is expected. Basically I get zero savings.
What gives? Is Rachio not using the WU forecast in Canada. Whatever they are using is wrong about 90% of the time. Which is impressive, because if you just guess you’d still be right half the time! Basically I have to watch the weather forecast and set up a skip myself, which isn’t the way a smart controller should work.

Today, looking at yesterday’s weather tab in the home page it shows that yesterday was mostly sunny (which it sure wasn’t) but the precipitation number is right. So it’s reading what fell from the skies just fine from tne PWS, but not getting the right forecasts a lot of the time.

Guidance please? If I can’t sort this out, it’s time to find a different system.

Maybe its the language barrier. Rachio doesn’t understand Canadian.

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Lol. We do spell a few words differently here, but “weather” and “forecast” aren’t any different.

It looks like Rachio is not using Weather Underground here. Maybe Aeris? But that most certainly isn’t accurate around here.

I am in Wisconsin US so just a stone throw from Canada. Here I have a weather station a quarter mile from my house. I have been using that or the 30000 aggregate stations setting. Not sure if its the same for you in Canada or not. Both seem to work fine.

It doesn’t matter if I use 1 PWS or the whole Weather Intelligence Plus universe, the forecast on the Weather Undeground website that every PWS in a 50 km radius shows me is not the forecast that the controller seems to be accessing. The WU forecast is similar to the Weather Network and Environment Canada and they all agree more or less. However, whatever Rachio is using is invariably wrong and results in watering even when it shouldn’t. If I don’t keep an eye on the forecast and force a skip, I essentially get no savings. The precipitation numbers are all fine, so Rachio reads those from the PWS with no issue. It’s the forecast that is the issue. It’s plain wrong and it basically makes what should be a super smart controller into just a wifi enabled dumb controller.

@Northernthrux in an August 2018 thread @franz seems to indicate that Rachio uses Weather Underground in Canada. See the link below. So best bet is for @franz or another Rachio staff member to chime in here.

If that is the case, then something is very wrong with the tranfer of info from WU and I can’t believe others wouldn’t have noticed. As I’ve stated, WU forecasts are pretty good here and every PWS in my area shows the same forecast. But those forecasts don’t translate into rain predictions either on the top of the home page or in the actual calendar. And so it waters when it shouldn’t. By manually doing skips I’ve saved about 28,000 litres in the past 2 weeks. So something is fishy.

Weather Network forecast for today and tomorrow, 100% chance of rain with thunderstorms. And it is already raining. Rachio forecast-partly cloudy, dry and hot. Really?

Is there an answer to the weather stations not being accurate in Canada??! I’m north of Toronto. Rainy right now and Rachio says sun and clouds?

did you resolve your issue? I have rain in the forecast tomorrow and my Rachio weather says no preciptiation. Isn’t this suppose to be real time weather reports?

No, no one from Rachio seems to care about the inaccuracies in Canada.

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