Looks like using precipRate results in an over estimate of the total rainfall during the period. Particularly, if there is heavy rainfall at the moment of the observation. The WU site says:
precipRate = Rate of precipitation - instantaneous precipitation rate. How much rain would fall if the precipitation intensity did not change for one hour
This PR swaps to using precipTotal and calculating the difference between periods. Note that the total resets to zero at midnight so this approach will lose any rain that falls between the last reading of the day and midnight.
Reference discussion on Discord: here
Looks like using
precipRateresults in an over estimate of the total rainfall during the period. Particularly, if there is heavy rainfall at the moment of the observation. The WU site says:This PR swaps to using
precipTotaland calculating the difference between periods. Note that the total resets to zero at midnight so this approach will lose any rain that falls between the last reading of the day and midnight.