Inaccurate Weather Forecasts

I have questions about how the Iro uses weather forecasts for watering. I’m in the Phoenix area and for the past 4 days the weather forecasts have been saying we were going to get a huge rainstorm coming through yesterday and today with at least an inch or two of rain. The Iro notified me yesterday and today that it wasn’t going to water because it was expecting at least an inch of rain. Instead, we are just getting a light sprinkle which will come no where close to what was forecasted. Does the Iro now use the actual data for yesterday and today to determine if it needs to water tomorrow? I’m worried that it will still think the rain occurred and thus won’t water for a while because the moisture levels will be up. Thanks.

Had similar problems here in CA, but mine is due to the actual rain not being reported back to the Iro from the weather station. I actually had a forecast below the threshold so it started watering (I manually stopped it when I woke up that morning) and I ended up with over .8 inches of rain…yet the Iro wanted to water again a day and a half later :frowning:

@JPedrego, thanks for reaching out. Happy to help answer your questions, below:

Great question. It’s important to keep in mind the type of schedule you’re using. Fixed schedules will check for precip events roughly 1 hour before the scheduled watering time and will look back and forward 24 hours (48 hour time window) to see if the weather intelligence threshold set in your schedule will be reached between the observed (historical) or predicted (future) rainfall. If so, the watering event will be skipped and not rescheduled. On the other hand, a Flex schedule will keep track of the rainfall data and reconcile the predicted and observed rainfall to correct for any errors in weather forecasts (please note, this reconcile can take up to 48 hours to complete).

In reviewing your account, on the 22nd, your Fixed schedule was skipped since station KSDL predicted 0.33 in of precipitation with a total threshold of 0.25. If I’m understanding correctly, you do not believe your was expected to received 0.33 inches of rain on Tuesday? Additionally, both yesterday and today, the weather station reported observed rainfall of 1.26 in. Do you disagree with these readings? If so, please submit a weather station review ticket and we’ll have our weather service look into the discrepancy.

In reviewing your moisture graphs, I do see some conflicting data as 1.26 inches of rainfall is being reported for 9/22 and 0 inches for 9/23.

A quick fix for the time being would be to empty your moisture balance graphs by selecting “Adjust” > “Empty”. The moisture level will empty for yesterday, and reset overnight to water on your next allowed watering day at the scheduled time.

I hope this helps. I believe we need to submit your weather station for further review by our weather service.

Best, Emil

@bhochenedel, I replied to the other community post, but wanted to address the concern you mentioned here.

Opposite to @JPedrego, a temporary fix for the time being would be to fill your moisture balance graphs by selecting “Adjust” > “Fill”. The moisture level will fill for yesterday, and reset overnight to make your Iro delay watering until your moisture balance hits “0%”.

Hope this idea helps.

Best, Emil

+1 for fill/empty all zones with one click :smile:

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Hi Emil

Thanks for the response! Yeah it looks like there is an issue with the station forecasts. It did end up actually raining a good amount later in the day Tuesday. But now it looks like the forecast is stuck sinse it keeps reporting the same value. It hasn’t rained since Tuesday and we probably won’t get rain for a while. Ill reset my moisture levels and submit a report later today. Thanks!

Yes, +1 here as well. :wink:

@JPedrego, just wanted to circle back to this and let you know our weather service provider has identified an issue that I think might be impacting you. For details, please refer to this support article.

Best, Emil