Overview
ComplianceGo watches the weather at each of your sites and sends an alert when a site's threshold is met. An alert tells you a site needs looking at.
The behavior that surprises people is the quiet period afterwards. Once an alert of a given type has fired, ComplianceGo normally won't send another of that type for 24 hours, even if the threshold is met again. For precipitation, completing a weather inspection ends that quiet period early (see below). This article explains why, and how to tell that from something being broken.
The Two Types of Alert
Type | What triggers it |
Precipitation alert | Rain has actually fallen on the site and reached its threshold. |
Forecast alert | Rain probability reaching the threshold is forecast for the site. |
They're tracked separately. A forecast alert and a precipitation alert for the same storm are two different alerts, and each has its own quiet period.
đ The product uses a few names for this feature. On screen it's called Weather Events: on the dashboard, on a site's status, and where inspections are set up. On the notification list the two types are Weather Pre-Event (Forecast) and Weather Post-Event. In this article, an alert means the notification that gets sent.
What Sets the Threshold
Each site has its own thresholds, set where its weather-triggered inspections are configured. A precipitation alert uses an Amount of precipitation (for example Post-Weather - Threshold: 0.50 inches). A forecast alert uses a Probability of precipitation.
Thresholds are per site, so two sites in the same storm can behave differently. See Setting Up a Weather-Triggered Inspection.
The 24-Hour Quiet Period
After an alert of one type fires, no further alert of that type is sent for 24 hours, unless a weather inspection ends a precipitation quiet period early (see If You Inspect During the Quiet Period, below).
The quiet period is what keeps one weather system from producing a stream of alerts for the same site â a single storm can cross the threshold repeatedly over an afternoon.
Two things follow from it:
It's per type. A precipitation alert doesn't silence a forecast alert, or the other way round.
It's per site. A quiet period on one site says nothing about another.
So "it rained hard again at 4pm and nobody was told" is expected behavior if a precipitation alert already went out that morning and no weather inspection has been completed since.
The Dashboard Count Works Differently
The Weather Events list on your dashboard shows sites with an alert sent in the last 48 hours.
Three things to know:
It counts both types together. Precipitation and forecast alerts aren't broken out. (The Weather Events section of the dashboard Scorecard is separate. It shows Precipitation, Forecast and Completed Inspections counts for the period picked in Days to Show.)
It's measured from when the alert was sent, not from when it rained.
Completing an inspection does not remove the site. The list is driven by alerts sent, so a site stays in it for the full 48 hours. Once a weather inspection has been completed for each alert type that fired at the site, its weather icon on the map turns green, and the map's status filter lists it under Completed Weather Events instead of Weather Events.
If You Inspect During the Quiet Period
There's one more rule, and it's the subtlest part of the feature.
What happens when you complete a weather inspection while that type's 24-hour quiet period is still running depends on the type. No setup is needed: the weather-triggered inspection set up for that alert type on the site always counts. Other forms count too if the inspector picks a response that's flagged in the form builder with Response flags inspection as a precipitation event or Response flags inspection as a forecast event.
Precipitation: the inspection ends the quiet period. For the next 24 hours, ComplianceGo counts only rain that falls after the inspection, and sends a new alert if that rain reaches the threshold. Only the first inspection after an alert does this; further inspections in those 24 hours change nothing. Forecast: the quiet period restarts from the inspection's date. However many times that happens, it never runs past 48 hours from the original alert. The reasoning: you've just looked at the site, so you don't need another alert about the same conditions, but new rain after your inspection should still reach you.
â ď¸ For forecast alerts, this means the quiet stretch can run past 24 hours from the original alert, up to a limit of 48 hours. If you're waiting on a second forecast alert for a site you've just inspected, expect it to take longer than a day from the first alert, and don't read the silence as a fault.
For forecast alerts, inspection dates can be backdated and the restart runs from the inspection date, so backdating an inspection moves the quiet period with it. For precipitation, timing runs from when you complete the inspection, whatever date it carries.
The 48-hour dashboard window is not affected. It stays anchored to the original alert. The two windows are independent, which is why a site can be out of its quiet period but still showing on the dashboard.
What Happens Next
The threshold is met at a site, and an alert is sent to the site's notification recipients configured for that alert type.
The site's quiet period for that type starts.
The site appears under Weather Events on the dashboard for 48 hours.
The alert doesn't create an inspection. Inspectors start the site's weather-triggered inspection themselves, from Available Weather Inspections on the site.
Completing that inspection while the quiet period is running ends it for precipitation (only rain after the inspection then counts) or restarts it for forecast (never past 48 hours from the alert). The site stays in the dashboard's Weather Events list. Once each alert type that fired has been inspected, its weather icon on the map turns green and it's listed under Completed Weather Events in the map's status filter.
FAQ
Q: It rained enough but no alert arrived.
A: Usually an alert of that type already fired within the last 24 hours, and the quiet period suppressed the second one. For precipitation, if someone completed a weather inspection after that alert, then for the next 24 hours only rain that fell after the inspection counts toward the threshold. This is expected behavior, not a fault.
Q: A site has never produced an alert at all.
A: Either nobody is subscribed to that alert type, or the site has no threshold set. Check Notification Recipients on the site for Weather Post-Event and Weather Pre-Event (Forecast), and check the site's threshold.
Q: A site stays under Weather Events after I inspected it.
A: Expected. The Weather Events list counts alerts sent over 48 hours, not outstanding work, so it clears when the 48 hours elapse rather than when you finish the inspection. Once each alert type that fired has been inspected, the site's weather icon on the map turns green.
Q: A forecast alert arrived but no rain came.
A: Forecast alerts fire on the forecast, not the outcome. The precipitation alert only fires if rain actually reaches the threshold.
Q: Two sites in the same storm behaved differently.
A: Thresholds are per site. Compare the two sites' thresholds where their weather-triggered inspections are configured. The weather data is site specific â two sites, even ones close together, can differ enough in forecast or precipitation that one fires and the other doesn't.
Q: An alert I expected is more than a day late.
A: For a forecast alert, you probably completed an inspection during the quiet period, which restarts it from the inspection date. It never runs past 48 hours from the original alert. For a precipitation alert, after an inspection ComplianceGo counts only rain that falls after the inspection, so the next alert waits until that new rain reaches the threshold.
Q: One person got the alert and another didn't.
A: Alert recipients are set per site and per alert type. Open Notification Recipients on the site and check both weather switches for each person.
Related articles
Setting Up a Weather-Triggered Inspection
Setting Up Notification Recipients for a Site
Understanding Inspection Statuses