Click Here to Download the Program

This utility tells you how many days it's been since it rained.  You can use it to tell whether this is a good day to try for Ol' Boggy.  You could also use it to alert you to water the lawn, and other non-caching uses.

After you have downloaded the program, it will run once.  Don't run it again until you have configured it.  Go to this folder:  C:\Program Files\Thots Utilities\Rainfall.  Open the file named rainfall.cfg in Notepad or Wordpad. 

Go Here and click on the little green dot nearest you.  On the next page, under Product click the Preliminary Climatology Data radio button.  Now, click on the Local Data/Records tab and select the location nearest you  Next, click Current Monthly Climate Data.  This webpage contains the rainfall data for the weather station nearest you.

Copy the URL/link of this page.   It will look something like this:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/productview.php?pil=HGXCF6HGX&version=0

To copy the URL/link, click in the Address bar at the top of the browser screen.  This should highlight/mark the entire URL.  Go to Edit > Copy to copy the link

Now return to Notepad and replace the similar URL there with the one you just copied.  You must be careful to replace all of the example URL and only the URL.  If you mess it up, just delete the rainfall.cfg file, and run the program once to make a new one.

These Are the Entries in the rainfall.cfg File
You change them in Notepad to set your preferences

noaaURL=http://www.srh.noaa.gov/productview.php?pil=HGXCF6HGX&version=0
This is the URL you got and pasted in from the instructions above

TimeToRun=9:05 AM
In my area, yesterday's data is not posted  until about 9am.  You can use the TimeToRun parameter to set a time of day you want the program to check the rainfall data .  If you set a time here it takes precedence over DelayBeforeChecking.  That is any value in DelayBeforeChecking is ignored if there is a value greater than 0 in TimeToRun.  If you intend to use a DelayBeforeChecking  give no TimeToRun, that is use TimeToRun=0

DelayBeforeChecking=60
This is the number of seconds after the program starts that it will check  If you want to delay the rainfall check for an hour enter 3600.  If you don't want a delay, enter 0.

DaysWithoutRain=0
If you only want to be notified when there have been say five days without rain enter 5 here.  If you want to be told every day how many day there have been without rain enter 0 here.

OnlyOnceDaily=yes
Determines if program will only run once daily.  If set to yes the program will only run once daily.  If set to no it can be run over and over each day
 

LastRunOn=01-01-2000
This is not a number the user should change. The program uses it to keep track of whether a rain check has been made today so it won't check twice if OnlyOnceDaily is set to yes.

After changing the URL I suggest you change all of the user parameter values to 0 (zero) and test to see if it's working.  Then change them to your preferences.

Put a Shortcut to the Program in Your Windows Startup Folder

The program is designed to run at computer startup.  It should put a short in your windows Startup folder automatically when you install it, but if it doesn't or you removed it you will have to put one there yourself.  To do this do the following: 

Put it here if you have Administrator privileges
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Otherwise put it here
C:\Documents and Settings\[your user name]\Start Menu\Programs\Startup