Other agricultural weather networks around the country require large budgets and staff, and leave the interpolation between weather station locations up to the user. If your farm is not one of the specific Radar sites, be cautious in extrapolating from those sites to yours. Some rain fronts are large and deliver consistent amounts of water across large areas. Others, such as summer thunderstorms, can be a very localized event, causing a nearby site to have estimates that do not accurately reflect conditions at your location. In addition to interpreting weather observations, the Orchard Radar also uses forecast data in the same way.
Weather forecasting is less than perfect, but it is much better than using simple climatic averages.
Precipitation forecasting is significantly better than climatology out to roughly 3 or 4 days. Temperature forecasting is significantly better than climatology out to roughly 6-7 days. Radar uses forecast information out to 10 days, beyond that it uses climatology to provide useful guidance for 'about when' things are likely to happen. The closer one gets to the estimated date and has to make a decision, the more the Orchard Radar estimate is based on observed data and better quality near-term forecast values, and so in general, the accuracy of the estimates improves as the date of the event approaches. Orchard Radar for Highmoor Farm Ag.