Precip – Rain Totals & Weather

Review by eFreeware

Precip is a weather app from Precipitation Inc. that does one job rather than everything: it reports how much rain or snow has fallen at a specific spot on a map. That focus is the main reason to consider it. Most general weather apps tell you the temperature and a chance of rain; this one is built around accumulation totals, which is a different question entirely.

The app has been available since March 2024 and sits in the Weather category on Google Play, where it has passed 100,000 installs and holds a 4.7 average from 4,266 ratings. It is free to download and offers in-app purchases.

What appeals to me most is the plainness of the promise. You pick a location, and the app tells you what fell there over the past 12, 24 or 48 hours and beyond, drawing on high-resolution NOAA radar and scientific models. For anyone whose day depends on that number, that is more useful than another forecast screen.

Pinpoint totals instead of a regional forecast

The core of Precip is a map you can move around and query. Drop a point anywhere and the app reports the rainfall or snowfall total for that exact spot, not an average for a city or a county. That distinction matters when a storm dumps heavily on one side of town and barely touches the other.

Totals are available for several windows: the last 12 hours, the last 24, the last 48, and longer periods. That range lets you look at a single storm event or step back and see how a wet stretch has added up. The developer describes the accuracy as pinpoint, drawing on NOAA radar data and scientific models rather than a single forecast run.

There is also a live element. Map overlays show rain or snow as it moves, so you can watch a band approach your location and judge what is headed your way. For someone deciding whether to start a pour, mow a field or water a garden bed, that moving picture is often more actionable than a percentage chance.

History that puts this year in context

Beyond the last day or two, Precip keeps years of accumulation history. You can compare the current year against long-term normals and against past years, which turns a raw total into something you can interpret. Six inches of rain means something different in a region that expects thirty inches a year than in one that expects ten.

The same comparison works across locations. If you manage property in more than one place, or you are curious about a parcel you own elsewhere, you can check how one spot's season stacks up against another. That is a narrow use case, but it is exactly the kind of question a totals-focused app should answer.

I would expect this section to be the slow-burn value of the app. A single day's rainfall is interesting; a season's record against the normals is the thing you actually use to make decisions about irrigation, planting or scheduling work.

Forecasts built from several models at once

Precip does not stop at what already happened. It includes forecasts assembled by blending multiple weather models from different sources, an approach the developer calls ensemble-powered. The idea is that combining models smooths out the quirks of any single one and gives a steadier picture of what is coming.

The developer pitches this as more reliable than a single guess, and that framing is fair to treat as a claim rather than a guarantee. The method is a recognized one, and it fits the app's overall posture: gather several inputs, show the result plainly.

Saved locations tie the forecast and the history together. You can keep the places that matter to you on hand for quick updates and then open any of them for the full detail. For someone tracking a home, a job site and a relative's farm, that shortcut is the difference between checking the app and not bothering.

Extra data layers and what the paid tier covers

Subscriptions unlock extra layers, including wind speed, snow depth and soil conditions. Soil moisture in particular pairs naturally with the rainfall totals, since it tells you how much of that water is still in the ground rather than how much fell on it.

The free version is a starting point rather than the whole product. Upgrading unlocks additional saved locations, a longer span of rainfall and snowfall history, live rain with nowcasting, and the premium layers. So the free tier gives you the core totals and map, while the paid tier widens the history, the number of places you can track and the data on top.

If your interest is occasional — checking what fell overnight before deciding whether to water — the free side may cover it. If you want the deeper history and the soil and snow layers as part of a regular routine, the upgrade is the version of the app the developer is really selling.

What it asks of you before it pays off

Precip is not a glance-and-go weather app. It rewards you for naming the places you care about and returning to them, because the totals and the history are tied to specific points on the map. That is a small amount of setup, but it is setup, and the app's value grows with it.

The premium split is the other trade-off to weigh. Live rain, nowcasting, extended history, extra saved locations and the data layers all sit behind the upgrade, so the question is how much of the app you actually need. Someone who wants a one-time answer about last night's rain will find the free version sufficient; someone who wants the full record will not.

There is also the matter of scope. Precip is built around precipitation totals and the forecast that feeds them, so it is not the app you open for a seven-day temperature outlook or an air quality index. That is a deliberate boundary, and it is worth understanding before you install it expecting a general-purpose weather companion.

The people this app was built for

Farmers, builders, landscapers and outdoor enthusiasts are the audience, and the feature set backs that up. A construction foreman deciding whether the ground is ready to work, a grower timing irrigation, a landscaper planning a day's jobs — these are people for whom a rainfall total is a decision input, not trivia.

Gardeners fit comfortably too. Knowing that a bed received an inch and a half overnight, and that soil moisture is holding, is a better basis for skipping a watering than a general forecast. The same goes for anyone managing land they do not live on and cannot check in person.

The common thread is that you have a reason to care about a specific place and a specific number. If that describes you, the app's narrowness is a feature. If you mainly want to know whether to grab a jacket, a general weather app will serve you and this one will feel like more than you asked for.

A focused tool for people who track what falls

Precip earns a recommendation for a defined group: anyone who needs rainfall or snowfall totals for a precise location, whether that is a farm, a job site, a garden or a property they keep an eye on from a distance. The combination of pinpoint map totals, multi-window history, year-over-year comparison and blended forecasts covers that need well.

The app is deliberately narrow, so it complements rather than replaces a general weather app.

It is free to try, and it has drawn a 4.7 average from more than four thousand ratings since its March 2024 release. If your decisions turn on how much water actually reached the ground, this is the kind of tool worth having on your phone. If your weather questions are broader than that, the focused approach here will not answer them.

What's new in version 4.6.0

Precip is the best weather app for rainfall totals and alerts. This update fixes bugs and improves performance.