Within a few minutes of connecting. Rain Gauge reads the last two weeks of rainfall for your ZIP code straight away, then adds each new hour as NOAA publishes it, about an hour after the hour ends. So "today" always lags real time by an hour or two.
The numbers are NOAA's MRMS MultiSensor estimate: weather radar corrected with nearby rain-gauge reports, for a square about 1 km across at the centre of your ZIP code. Over a whole storm it is usually close to a good gauge nearby, but in thunderstorms rain can change a lot within a few hundred metres, and radar can miss rain in deep valleys or very light drizzle. It is an estimate for your area, not a gauge in your yard.
Hours NOAA didn't publish. They are left out of the totals, never counted as dry, and the gauge page says how many there were.
Rain Gauge doesn't trigger your camera. It asks Ring for an image the camera already recorded during the heaviest hour of rain (from Snapshot Capture or a motion event). If the camera recorded nothing that hour, there is no photo. Turning on Snapshot Capture in the Ring app helps. Photos at night are in infrared, as your camera records them.
No. The camera supplies the picture; the rain amount comes only from NOAA's data. A hose sprayed at the camera, or a wet lens on a dry day, never shows up as rain.
The lower 48 United States. NOAA's estimate does not cover Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico.
Use Settings on your gauge page. A new ZIP is a new place, so it starts a new gauge with two weeks filled in.
Use Delete my data on your gauge page, or remove Rain Gauge in the Ring app. Either erases everything immediately.
Email michaelbflynn@gmail.com. We reply within two business days.