I have been thinking of making a rain gauge with a floater similar to the one in a home humidifier. If the weekly rainfall exceeds a set value you can't turn on the sprinkler. If the weekly rainfall is less, it allows you to turn on the sprinkler until the set value is reached and automatically shuts off the sprinkler. That way you can even out the weekly watering.

For new plantings, the time interval can be, say 2 days to even out the watering in that short time interval.

Perhaps this rain dependent (rather than time dependent) feature is available in some advanced sprinkler systems. It is not that difficult to make.

dont know where you are.. so the map doesnt help ... unless you are in dodgeville ....

i tend to be in an area ... between ann arbor.. and toledo ... and very often ... especially in winter .... the storms go north of I94/ann arbor ... or south toward toledo ... i am glad when its severe weather .... but irritated when it is watering type rain ..

when i started typing this.. it was near 100 ... sunny and balmy ... 215 pm ... in the time it took to type.. it went to dusk.. and poured like hell ... whats that all about.. lol ... what balmy plus a downpour.. lol ...

when i used to run irrigation for hosta .... i ran it.. regardless of what ma nature gave ... under the trees ... you could not gauge what actually got to the ground ... so it wasnt worth missing a session based on hope and prayer ....

ken

Happens here all the time. Rains/Storms move in from the West and decrease in intensity, sometimes to almost nothing, then intensify again once they've past out area. Or start out here as a sprinkle or light shower, then build as it moves away to the East.

There can be a good side to that. Friday night we got 0.6" of rain because we caught the edge of a more severe storm that caused wind and hail damage, with 2" of rain just to the East of us. The storm, coming out of the SW, expanded just as it passed so we go in on the rain but no wind or hail.

But these are the very widely scattered storms that frequent the area. Today, we picked up half an inch from, according to the radar, a system that covered most of the State. And a couple of weeks ago, we got 3" and all around us people were reporting 5-6" overnight and into the next day.

When my things need water, they get water. Even when rain is imminent, I'll get the hose going and water what needs it, maybe not as deeply as I normally would, just in case the rain ends up to be 0.1" or so, I feel it's better to prime up the ground to accept those light rains and so if it comes hard, it doesn't run off as easily. :-)

Ya, storms that 'split', that too we get.

I know people the live between Rochester and Winona MN. Seems like they're always getting Rain (and Snow) over there. :o(

That line out by Madison just feel apart too. Its like clockwork!

I usually will water too if its really needed and there is a chance of rain. You never really know. Like you said its a bonus if it does rain plus you get less runoff!

It use to be like that here also but not this year. Can't go more than two or three days with out getting dumped on, pond is still close to overflow. Just got to mow the weeds in a low area yesterday thanks to a extremely hot day.

Frank

I have watched storms on the radar and can see the phenomenon frequently. While living in Indianapolis, a line of thunderstorms would come in from the west and bow and then bubble as the line approached the city. As the line passed beyond the city the bubble would back fill.

I now live in the Raleigh area. You can see the same phenomenon modified by the fact that you have two major cities close together. Some times you see the bow and bubble phenomenon. Other time like other have said the storms go to the north east or south west of the two cities.

This is bad for us living in southeast of the area. Since the weather pattern brings storms in the north west, to get any rain, the storms have to come form the south east to get "behind" the cities.

As an example in the past 6 weeks, we have received less that an inch of rain. While areas north and south of us have gotten several inches.