Rachio Weather Intelligence

Summary

This article covers everything you need to know about Rachio’s Weather Intelligence™ Plus, including weather skip features such as Rain, Freeze, Wind, and Saturation Skip, as well as Seasonal Shift. You’ll learn how each feature works, how to turn them on or off, and how to adjust the threshold settings for each skip type and why those adjustments matter. This article also covers all about your weather source and answers frequently asked questions.

What is Weather Intelligence™ Plus?

Weather Intelligence™ Plus is a software feature available to all Rachio smart watering devices. It provides your devices with current and projected hyper-local weather data that’s not only in your area but right outside your door. No other smart sprinkler controller offers weather monitoring this precise or reliable. This data can act as weather triggers to skip watering schedules or adjust watering durations, saving you water. Additionally, no extra hardware or external sensors are required to use Weather Intelligence™ Plus!

What are the functions of Weather Intelligence™ Plus?

Rain Skip
Wind Skip
Saturation Skip
Freeze Skip

How does Weather Intelligence™ Plus work?

Rachio receives weather reports from our weather service detailing the weather conditions before and after the watering time, checking both 12 hours and 1 hour before the scheduled run. If these conditions meet or exceed your pre-set threshold, the watering schedule is skipped, saving you from over-watering and saving money.

Weather data is provided by the weather source you’ve selected for your property; this could be the interpolated Weather Network, a specific weather station, or a connected Tempest Personal Weather Station (PWS) at your home.

Rachio’s self-healing Weather Intelligence™ Plus network empowers the most accurate weather scheduling available by combining data from national weather stations, more than 300,000 personal weather stations, satellite data, radar data, and more to provide hyperlocal forecasting that’s accurate to the location of your controller.

How is Weather Intelligence™ Plus Self-Healing?

Is there a problem with your selected weather station? With our new Self-Healing feature, Weather Intelligence™ Plus can now take action to help. If your weather station stops reporting data for three days or more, Rachio will switch to the closest reporting station and then send you an email notifying you of the change.

Rain and Freeze Skip & FAQ

Rain Skip saves you water by skipping watering schedules before it rains. Freeze skips can be set up on a schedule to avoid watering when the air temperature is at or near freezing. Not only is watering in cold conditions rarely necessary, but doing so can damage nozzles and plants when ice forms.

This short one-minute video will walk you through Rachio's Rain & Freeze Skip Weather Intelligence features and will provide some guidance on how to use them.

Rain Skip FAQ

How does Rain Skip work?

Weather Intelligence checks the forecast 12 hours before, and again 1 hour before your schedule is set to run, tracking the amount of observed and forecasted rain in a sliding 48-hour window. This means it’s looking at any observed rain in the last 24 hours, plus any forecasted rain in the next 24 hours. If the combined rainfall exceeds your device’s skip threshold, the scheduled run will skip.

Does Rain Skip actually save water?

Yes! Rain Skip saves the average homeowner thousands of gallons of water each year because it skips schedules before it rains. Rain Sensors only skip schedules after it has already rained, as they need to physically "feel" the rain.

Rain skip triggered a schedule skip, but it didn’t rain. What’s the deal?

Just like the weatherman, not all forecasts are accurate. Rain Skip is only as accurate as the data it receives from your preferred weather source/station. The schedule creator defaults to a skip threshold of 1/8". If you wish to save the maximum amount of water and want to skip whenever possible, set the Rain Skip threshold to 1/16" (trace rainfall).

Why is my schedule with Rain Skip enabled still running even though it rained?

If your Flex Daily schedule is still running even though it's raining, it could simply be due to the fact that the schedule believes the amount of natural precipitation is not enough to supply your vegetation with the amount of water it needs. If your Fixed or Flex Monthly schedule (with Rain Skip enabled) is still running when it's raining, it means the weather thresholds you've set in the app settings have not been met to trigger a skip.

Freeze Skip FAQ

When does Freeze Skip check the temperature?

Freeze Skip, one of Rachio's five Weather Intelligence features, checks the observed temperature one hour before your scheduled watering time.

Wind Skip & FAQ

Prevent waste by skipping waterings when high winds are likely to scatter water intended for your plants. If wind speeds exceed your predetermined threshold, Rachio will automatically skip your scheduled watering.

FAQ

How does this check work?

If high wind speeds are expected to exceed your predetermined threshold at your scheduled start time, your schedule will be skipped. This is because strong winds are likely to disperse the water intended for your plants and leave your vegetation thirsty.

Saturation Skip & FAQ

This feature will skip only fixed schedule watering when the soil moisture balance of ALL zones will stay above the allowed depletion threshold until the next scheduled watering.

FAQ

How far into the future can Saturation Skip predict?

Saturation Skip will track weather data for the last 7 days and forecast 7 days into the future (14-day sliding window). If you have a scheduled interval longer than 7 days in the future, Saturation Skip will be disabled.

Seasonal Shift & FAQ

Seasonal Shift automatically adjusts your watering duration on Fixed schedules throughout the year to ensure your yard receives the right amount of water. As temperatures rise during the spring and summer, Seasonal Shift increases zone run times to account for higher water needs. As the weather cools, Seasonal Shift reduces watering durations accordingly.

FAQ

What if I change the durations for a zone?

If you manually change the watering duration for a specific zone, the next time Seasonal Shift runs, it will update that zone's watering duration with a relative seasonal adjustment.

What happens if I change my Zone Settings?

Changing your standard or "advanced" zone settings has the potential to affect the watering duration and interval of any schedules with Seasonal Shift enabled.

Weather Skips Settings

Enabled or Disabled Weather Skips

Skips are an element of Schedules, and you can enable different types of skips for different schedules. First, tap on the watering device you'd like to make changes to. Then go to the “Schedules” tab located at the bottom middle section of your Rachio app.

Adjusting Weather Skip Threshold

To adjust your Weather Thresholds, tap the "Weather" button at the top of the screen, and select "Weather thresholds" from the sub menu.

Inaccurate Skips

Extreme weather
Conditions (such as hurricanes or tornadoes, for example) can cause forecasts to change a lot and can lead to inaccurate skips.
Micro Climate and Weather Network
Areas with microclimates may experience inaccurate Weather Skips when the Weather Network is selected as the weather source.

Rachio App Forecast vs Other Weather Apps

The weather data displayed in the Rachio app may sometimes differ from what you see in other weather apps or services due to the specific nature of the Rachio weather grid and the way we source weather information.

Your Weather Source

You can choose a weather source from the Devices Screen by tapping the "Weather" button at the top of the screen. You can then select your preferred weather source.

Weather Underground (PWS) & Rachio

If you would like to use your Personal Weather Station (PWS) with Rachio 3, you’re in luck! Weather Intelligence™ Plus is built on the largest PWS network in the industry.

Weather Source FAQ

Where does Rachio get its weather data?
Rachio receives weather data from WeatherUnderground and Aeris Weather Service.