Rain Data: Tools of the digital kind
An app and a spreadsheet for recording rainfall data and monitoring water levels
The Rainy App
I’ve been recording rainfall data and our water usage here at our farm since we arrived. To make data entry easier I made an app1.
After each rainfall, I check my rain gauge2 and sometimes the water level in my rainwater cistern. The app will show me monthly and annual rainfall statistics and also keep records of my water usage. When I pump water from the cistern, the app will estimate how long I should run the pump for and calculate pump flow rates3.
For me, its usefulness is determining whether my rainwater tanks will last me for duration of the dry season.
Documentation for the Rainy App is here: https://bit.ly/RainyAppDocumentation
If you’d like a copy, please message me.4
The Rainy Dashboard
Looking at statistical charts on a screen the size of a phone is no fun so I also made a Google Sheets Dashboard. It connects to the data from Appsheet and presents a number of different charts.
If you use the Rainy App, I’ll share a copy of the Dashboard with you. It will also enable you to have full access to the data you enter into the App5.
Here is a viewable page of my own rainfall data: https://bit.ly/RainyDashboard_0a6
A Rainfall Monitoring Spreadsheet
This is a stand-alone spreadsheet just for recording rainfall. I’d love to encourage more people to record rainfall, just these small habits that connect us a little bit more to the wider world in which we inhabit but often ignore.
Simply add the date-time and rainfall to the bottom of the USER INPUT sheet. The charts will update automatically. You’re also able to add the name of your local town7 and the spreadsheet will search for its average monthly rainfalls, which you can then see compared to yours in the charts.
Please message me with an introduction if you would like a copy.
Some examples
My Dad recorded rainfall for the thirty years he was farming in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. They don’t get anything like our Philippine tropical rains there, yet every conversation always included some question or commentary about the weather.
Our farm was 30km from the nearest shops, our nearest neighbour was over 4km away. And yet … we happened to have three government weather monitoring stations within 12km of the farm! One of these sites recorded daily rainfall from as far back as 1907, the others since 1911 and 1939. So I was able to compare this with my Dad’s records (basically checking his work).
I did try looking for some trends in the data but this was beyond my statistical capabilities so I came away empty handed. My Dad, 83 this year, had one look at all the numbers and had to go lie down.
The rainfall data in the Philippines can be a bit harder to get your hands on. PAGASA charge to provide the data, yet a lot of it you can get for free from international websites such as NASA. It’s sometimes hard to discern from websites whether the information you’re seeing is from models or it’s actually physically recorded.
A friend of mine who lives further up north in the Philippines has also been recording data since they started their farm. I did a comparison of their rainfall versus ours and the differences are interesting. I sort of wish we had this sort of data before we started farming as it may have changed what water management infrastructure we would have set up.
As you can see, he has quite a definitive wet season and a long dry. Mine blurs a lot more. At this time of year, start of December, he’s already well into the dry season, he’s not had rain for 61 days. I’m still getting regular rains.
He has to deal with larger rainfalls, more potential flooding.
He has to deal with longer periods without rain. His longest gap between rains was 127 days, mine a mere 26 days. It’s still undecided who gets hit by more typhoons though. And I’m the one 30km from a grumbling volcano.
Background
If you’ve followed me for a while you’ll know that I’m pretty low-tech regarding farm tools; a scythe, a machete (bolo) and a handsaw. I don’t see the use of machinery on a small tropical farm like ours as “progress”. I like doing things slowly. However, coming from an engineering background I do embrace the idea of collecting data to make better use of my time. I’m well aware that “efficiency” is one of things that has led us into the trouble we’re in but finding ways to reduce hardships on my body is essential to enjoying a long and hopefully fruitful anti-career here as a somewhat-sort-of-farmer.
At the same time, I’m very cautious about data too, without context it’s meaningless. Without being on the land every day and knowing it intimately, the numbers and graphs only tell part of the story. The way Nicolai and I manage our land; both mostly with scythes, both following simple rules like always having the soil covered with living plants, whether it be with weeds or our own plantings, mulching along contours, etc, can very much mean that long dry spells and intense rains don’t cause the havoc that they used to.
Recommended readings:
Some substacks that are worth following if you’re interested in climate, water and plants:
Climate Water Project - How to restore the water cycle, and how that helps with hydrating the earth and soil, replenishing groundwater, restore rains in drought areas, lessen flooding, and slow down climate change.
The Climate According to Life - Writings on the science, poetics and politics of the living climate.
Roots of the Sky - Writing about how plant communities make the living world possible, managing energy, carbon and water in the thin space around the rock we call home.
The app is made using Appsheet, a Google product, so whether it still exists in a few years remains to be seen, see The Google Graveyard. I chose Appsheet because with a free account I’m able to run it on my iphone.
Mine is just an old olive jar. Instead of measuring the water level, I weigh the water and calculate the level using the jar’s diameter. All this is done in the app.
Flow rate because sometimes frogs crawl into pipes.
…with a short introduction to who you are please. As it takes me a while to set up each user (it’s hosted on my own Google Drive, this is the only way I can make this free) I’d ask that you have at least a year’s worth of your own rainfall data before requesting the app.
So you can make backups or store locally on your own PC.
Unfortunately, as this is just a web preview you are not able to make any changes to what “Year” you are looking at. Of course on your own copy, you will.
Or your lat/long coordinates.
Can I please get this! Recording rainfall was a new years resolution of sorts and I've been struggling to develop the habit. 🙏 How awesome that you made an app!