weather data accuracy

so it use to be that you could trust the weather data you got from many places for your farming,
but not true anymore,
I have had others tell me this in other areas,
but now I have seen it for myself

the last rain storm here was the first in a long while,
and that could be why I did not noticed it earlier,

I measured 0.75 inches of rain here in things like buckets and the rain gauge that was not straight up and down got almost that,
so I am pretty sure that is what we got,
and looking at how fast it fell it seems like the max. rate of rain was about an inch an hour.

but the NOAA and wunderground each said I got 0.25 inches of rain,
so I went looking as to why things did not match,
I got to the wunderground station data and looked, and the station north of me had 0.66 inches, the one south had 0.39 and they are the 2 closest by far, there is another one sort of close over a mountain and to the east and it said 0.55
now they likely read low due to error in the sensors as they can't get fast rainfall rates super well,
but (.66+.39)/2=0.25 or even (0.66+0.39+0.55)/3=0.25 seems very wrong to me

the 0.25 number only shows up in the data for a city that has an airport out in the valley,
it would appear as if they are now "averaging" the weather for here by simply using the weather in a place 40 miles away and 2200 foot lower in elevation, (and 10 weather stations away)
and that is just not close enough to use it for your farming needs,
so it would appear that even with nearby weather stations that they are to lazy to use them anymore,
and you need your own measuring tools to tell how much water fell and other simple things...

 I would have not bothered saying this if it were not for the reports of my farming friends all over the country that are having similar issues.

so go get your own data, use a 5 gallon bucket in the garden to record rainfall if you have to,
sadly it appears to be the best way to do it in this vast world of internet and linked data.
and yes you can go look up station data on your own (at least on the wunderground site), but it will not be near as good as your own data.

here is sunset the night of the storm

it sure is fall when the kitties make a pile