Check for value three days in advance and three days past

[tome10]

I'm trying to automate my sprinkler system which is a stand alone system. I'm just toggling power to the unit based on a weather device's percent chance of rain notification. I don't know how often or how reliable the 100 percent rain in the future is, maybe look in the past for 100 percent and look in the future for greater than 70 percent.
well, I have these conditions devices that say rain, so maybe I should just trigger off of these. although, it said rain all day today but it never rained, but it did rain last night, and maybe it didn't stop raining till after midnight, so maybe technically it's correct anyways.
Condition 0 today
Condition 1 tomorrow
Condition 2 next day
Alright so if any of these say rain I could just turn the device off. How do I have an event look at these three days in the past for rain? How would you check 'yesterday and day before yesterday for rain status?
I do have precipitation percentage devices same as above, so the original plan could still work with the above 70 percent as the above mentioned devices are saying rain with a 30 percent chance. Maybe after it actually starts raining, it goes to 100 percent I don't know. So I need a way to check the past three days for 100 percent rain. Ideas?

[tome10]

Well I set it up where it powers off the sprinkler if there is over 69% rain chance and set a timer. If the timer is over 48hrs and less than 70% chance of rain it powers on. We’ll see how it works.


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[Uncle Michael]

In my experience, rain probability is a useful piece of information, but seldom reliable enough to use on its own. I do inhibit watering if the probability of rain is over 80% in the next 24 hours, but I also try to pay attention to the forecast so I can interpret the actual likelihood of significant rain. In many cases, even when the probability of rain is 100%, it turns out that the amount of rain is negligible, which sort of undermines the value of the probability estimate. (I use mcsSprinklers, which handles the bookkeeping chores, but I override its decision on occasion.)

[tome10]

I tend to overwater a little, so I think I can miss a couple of days here and there. My thing is that I hate seeing people's and my system watering while it's raining, or it had been raining the day or night before, or it's fixing to rain. I want a soil sensor.. I had one for a year, but it was tied into the irrigation system and apparently got struck by lightening, and fried a zone's wiring, so i'm not doing that again. I saw a wireless one that looks semi-promising, although it has a lot of bad reviews about reliability. I just have an old rainbird basic system in which i'm cutting power to with a GE Outdoor link. I don't have logging or any of that. I'd be willing to install a system if it was z-wave+Moisture Sensor+active rain sensor. This wireless sensor here should be able to tell if it's actively raining. You'd think you could use a leak sensor for active rain detection somehow. I'm thinking sandwich box with holes in the lid. hmm, genius.
https://www.toro.com/en/professional...on-soil-sensor

[Uncle Michael]

My thing is that I hate seeing people's and my system watering while it's raining, or it had been raining the day or night before, or it's fixing to rain. I want a soil sensor. . . .You'd think you could use a leak sensor for active rain detection somehow. I'm thinking sandwich box with holes in the lid.

There are a variety of rain sensors available like this one. They use an absorbent pad that swells when it gets wet. The swelling closes a switch, which you can use with a dry contact sensor.