Patent ID: 7945071

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of generating a notification of a status of precipitation being received by an area, comprising: receiving, by said computing system, a plurality of parameters that includes a set of geospatial coordinates, a detection distance, said per-pixel precipitation quantity threshold and a total precipitation quantity threshold; receiving, by said computing system, a definition of said detection zone based on said set of geospatial coordinates and said detection distance; receiving, by said computing system, an image of a geographic area, wherein said image includes a plurality of pixels, wherein said plurality of pixels includes a set of pixels associated with a detection zone within said geographic area, wherein each pixel of said set of pixels is associated with a sub-area of a plurality of sub-areas of said detection zone; obtaining, by a computing system, a set of characteristics of said set of pixels, wherein each pixel of said set of pixels has a characteristic of said set of characteristics, and wherein said set of characteristics indicates a set of intensities of precipitation being received by said plurality of sub-areas of said detection zone; counting, by said computing system, one or more intensities of said set of intensities, wherein each intensity of said one or more intensities is greater than said per-pixel precipitation quantity threshold, and wherein said counting results in a count; determining, by said computing system and based on said count, a status of a precipitation event, wherein said status indicates precipitation is being received by said detection zone or said precipitation is not being received by said detection zone; and generating, by said computing system, a notification of said status.