What is WaterWatch PRO?

WaterWatch PRO is a mobile app using digital NOAA rainfall data to track and report rainfall in the Continental United States. Users define locations to monitor, along with monitoring thresholds. 

Users receive text and email notifications when 24-hour accumulated rainfall values exceed the threshold. Additionally, users receive daily and monthly reports and optional SMS text and email notifications about forecasts and rainfall exceeding NOAA Atlas 14 historical values. 

WaterWatch PRO is a monthly subscription service priced based on the number of locations monitored and the type of features needed. To establish a subscription, users supply credit card information securely stored by our processor, Stripe. 

Each month, on the date the monitoring service began, WaterWatch PRO calculates the monthly charge, processes the payment through Stripe, and users receive a receipt.

The number of locations may change throughout the month, but there is no pro-rated charge.

See more detail on pricing below. In addition, volume discounts are available for locations above 100. Email customer support at support@waterwatchpro.com for more information.

Go to the App Store or Google Play to download a FREE trial using a smartphone. 

Create an account using a cell phone number and email address. Supply a location for WaterWatch PRO to monitor.

Trial users supply a credit card when creating the account, but no charges are made in the first 30 days. Standard monthly subscription charges begin after 30 days unless the trial user notifies customer support via email at support@waterwatchpro.com. 

At any time during the 30-day trial, you can upgrade to ongoing subscription monitoring by going to Settings in the Main Menu and selecting Upgrade.  

You will then receive an SMS text and email containing a secure link to choose the level of service and make the first month's payment, upon which you will receive a receipt from our processor Stripe. 

If you do not contact Customer Support via email at support@waterwatchpro.com BEFORE the end of the 30-day trial, you begin a Gold level subscription. We will charge the card on file each month on the date the trial started.

If you need to change your card, or we notify you that the card on file either expired or was declined, open the app and go to Settings, then Account Information.

You will receive an SMS text message and email containing a secure link to update the card on file.

If you no longer need WaterWatch PRO service, kindly click the button below and email Customer Support to remove your account.

Once we remove the account, you will lose all data stored up to that point, and no further monitoring will occur. Therefore, before sending the cancellation notice, download all past data from your monthly report link.  

As payment is always made a month in advance, no new charge will occur in the next month, and we will remove your information from our processor, Stripe. Unfortunately, no refunds are available on payments already processed.

NOAA produces a national assessment of rainfall on grids spaced 1 km (1/2 mile) apart, covering the Continental United States each hour. To create the gridded file, NOAA uses a combination of Doppler radar-derived rainfall, corrected by over 20,000 sited rain gauges enhanced with surface observations, satellite data, numerical models, and other available input sources. Additionally, the data stream undergoes periodic human adjustment to correct observed biases.

Each hour, WaterWatch PRO determines the grid closest to the user's monitored locations without interpolation. The value in the grid is stored hourly, and WaterWatch PRO calculates a running 24-hour accumulated value based on the sum of the preceding hours. 

See more detail on this NOAA data stream by clicking the button below.

To add locations, open the app, go to Site Locations, then click Add New Location. Define project site locations to monitor using:

• the street address
• digital latitude and longitude 
• a finger to drop a virtual pin on a map 

Give the location a name and define the monitoring threshold used to make notifications.

Alternatively, you can supply WaterWatch PRO with a CSV (comma-separated values) file containing location and threshold information to establish monitoring locations. 

Email WaterWatch PRO customer support for more details by clicking the button below.

You are charged monthly for the locations in your account based on selected features. For example, billing for a total location count less than 100 is based on multiples of 5 and depends on your monthly subscription level.

To remove a location, open the app and go to Site Locations. Next, click on the desired location, and from the site location menu, select the words appearing in red - Remove Location.

Once we remove a location, all monitoring stops, and this location does not count toward the monthly renewal cost for the next billing cycle. However, data collected before removing the location is still available for manual retrieval using the monthly report link.

If you remove a location while on a trial, email customer support to request a new trial location within the 30-day trial window.

Once a user defines a location to monitor, WaterWatch PRO uses digital NOAA data to record the hourly rainfall, along with a running 24-hour rainfall total.   

WaterWatch PRO sends notifications via SMS text to the cell number and email address used to create the account. The account holder can assign contacts to monitored locations and supply contact cell phone and email addresses. Those contacts can receive threshold, daily reports, and other notifications via SMS, text, or email. 

Go to the Site Locations option from the Main Menu to add a contact. Select a location, then select Settings and choose Manage Contacts. Add a contact by supplying their phone number or email, or both. Check the box to add this contact to the notification list for this location.

Once users set monitoring locations, WaterWatch PRO uses digital NOAA data to record the hourly rainfall and a cumulative 24-hour rainfall total each hour.

NOAA produces the rainfall grid file hourly, and due to the size of the file, it generally takes twenty minutes for WaterWatch PRO to process it. 

When the cumulative 24-hour total exceeds the specified threshold, WaterWatch PRO sends an SMS text and email notification to the account holder and all contacts assigned to a location. 

Users will not receive a subsequent threshold notification unless the cumulative 24-hour value drops below the threshold and new rainfall causes a new notification. Users can also receive notifications every time the threshold is met or once daily.

WaterWatch PRO sends Individual notifications to each location via SMS text and email.

In the Settings option of the Main Menu, users can choose to send notifications to all contacts or only the account holder. In addition, users can choose to consolidate the threshold exceedance messages.

Each morning around 9 am EDT, WaterWatch PRO sends the account holder a daily report via SMS text and email containing a summary of the previous day's total and hourly detail for all locations monitored in the account. 

Additionally, all contacts receive a daily report via SMS text and email containing only the daily and hourly totals for assigned locations. 

Users can choose to receive the daily report as early as 6 am EDT. Email customer support from the button below.

WaterWatch PRO provides users with a link to obtain monthly reports. However, only data since WaterWatch PRO monitoring began is available through the link. 

The link is available to users at any time, and WaterWatch PRO sends users an email around the 2nd day of each month informing them the most recent past month is available.  

Users can download monthly reports in either PDF or CSV format through the link. 

Users can see past daily totals from the app and receive a detailed report via email through the On-Demand feature, a Gold-level feature.

To do this, go to the Site Location option from the Main Menu, select a site and choose View Precip History. This displays the last 48 hours' worth of data. At the top of the display, select the On Demand Precip History option and enter the date range and choose the report delivery method.

Note that the On-Demand feature only allows for retrieving the last 60 days' worth of data. Therefore, the only data available for display using the On-Demand feature is from the date WaterWatch PRO monitoring began.

Using the WaterWatch PRO Portal, users can order daily rainfall totals from any location in the Continental U.S. The cost is 25¢ per day, and data is available as far back as 2011. 

In addition, WaterWatch PRO subscribers get a 10% discount on orders, and all users receive a first-time $5 credit. 

WaterWatch PRO's standard process uses an hourly NOAA digital rainfall data file, available at the end of each hour. Due to the processing time, 24-hour accumulated rainfall threshold notifications occur around 80 minutes from an hour's start. Users needing faster notification can leverage the RapidRain option.

RapidRain accesses a 15-minute raw, non-gauge-corrected NOAA data file. Users see a display containing data every 15 minutes and a running hourly accumulated value consisting of the past four 15-minute segments. 

Additionally, users can set a monitoring threshold and receive an SMS text and email notifications when the running hourly accumulated value exceeds the threshold.

As the data is received more quickly, notifications can occur within ten minutes of threshold exceedances to respond faster when rainfall first begins. 

RapidRain is ideal for industrial applications or sites needing sampling to capture runoff at the onset of rain.

To view this 15-minute data feed, go to Site Locations from the Main Menu, select the location and choose the RapidRain option. The display contains the last 6 hours' worth of data, and unlike the standard hourly process, users cannot retrieve this data.

When WaterWatch PRO creates accounts, this option is off by default. Therefore, users must intentionally activate this option on a location-by-location basis.

WaterWatch PRO provides two rainfall forecast displays. The first is a national three-day forecast from NOAA produced daily. View it by selecting Precipitation Forecast from the Main Menu. 

It displays rainfall forecasts for the Continental U.S. to provide a general overview of expected rain. Additionally, WaterWatch PRO provides a site-specific forecast for all monitored locations. Site-specific forecasts are a Gold-level feature.

To view this, go to Site Locations from the Main Menu and select a site, then choose the View Forecast option.

The display shows the forecasted daily amount for this location for the next three days. WaterWatch PRO retrieves this from NOAA daily at 4 am ET, when it becomes available.

If the forecast exceeds the monitoring threshold, WaterWatch PRO sends an SMS text and email to the account holder and location contacts. A link in the message reveals rainfall for the past 72 hours. That information lets users know if it has been dry three days before anticipated rain.

NOAA maintains an archive of historic rainfall maximum values for any latitude/longitude location in most Continental U.S., except for the Pacific Northwest. 

This table called the NOAA Atlas 14 shows the average recurrence interval, in years, that various amounts of rain will occur over multiple time scales. These are the so-called "25-year, 100-year," etc., flood events. NOAA frequently updates this database to remain current with recent rainfall events.

WaterWatch PRO periodically downloads the NOAA Atlas 14 table values for 1-hour and 24-hour occurrences for each monitored location. This table can be viewed by going to Site Locations from the Main Menu and selecting View Precip History. At the top of the subsequent display, select View Historic Maximums.

As hourly and 24-hour accumulated rainfall amounts are collected, WaterWatch PRO compares these to the NOAA Atlas 14 table values. If they exceed any value in the table, WaterWatch PRO sends an SMS text and email notification to the account owner and contacts assigned to that location. 

The link in the message shows the data and exceeded amounts in red. Users can then compare the displayed values with the NOAA Atlas 14 table to determine which historical time scale value was exceeded (10-year, 25-year, etc.)

Install the app by first creating an account supplying your phone number and email.  

Once the user installs the app, select a location for WaterWatch PRO to monitor by:

• entering the street address
• supplying digital latitude and longitude 
• using your finger to drop a virtual pin on a map.

Give the location a name and define the monitoring threshold. WaterWatch PRO will notify you when detected rainfall exceeds that threshold.

WaterWatch PRO emails come from the domains waterwatchpro.com and waterwatchinfo.com, and the IP address 142.0.181.18. Therefore, users must ensure that whoever controls their email process whitelist these domains and addresses. 

Users should check junk/spam folders if they are not receiving WaterWatch PRO emails and assign them correctly in their email processing system (Outlook, Gmail, etc.).

SMS texts come from a rotating pool of numbers beginning with the area code 833. Users should check that WaterWatch PRO SMS text messages are not blocked to ensure delivery with their cell phone provider.