Overview
A weather-triggered inspection sends an alert when the weather at a site crosses a threshold you set — either rain that has already fallen, or rain that's forecast — so you know it's time to inspect.
ComplianceGo measures precipitation at the site's own latitude and longitude, so the trigger reflects what happened at that site rather than at the nearest airport or weather station.
Before You Begin
You need edit access to the site.
The inspection form you want to use must already exist for your organization.
The site needs accurate coordinates, since precipitation is matched to the site's location.
The Two Trigger Types
Choose based on whether you inspect after the rain or ahead of it.
Trigger | Fires when | Use it for |
Post Weather Event | Rain that has already fallen reaches your threshold | Inspections required after a qualifying storm |
Pre-Weather Event | The forecast chance of rain reaches your threshold | Preparing a site before a storm arrives |
You can set up both on the same site. They're tracked separately.
Starting a New Inspection
Open the site.
Under Assignments and Management, click Inspections and Weather Events.
Click + Inspection.
On Select Inspection Form, click the + icon next to the form you want. Use the eye icon to preview a form first.
Choose Add as Scheduled Inspections, Weather Events, and Controls.
Choosing the Weather Trigger
Under Inspection Trigger, click Weather Event.
Choose Post Weather Event or Pre-Weather Event.
Setting the Threshold
For Post Weather Event, an Amount of precipitation row appears. Pick the rainfall that should trigger the alert:
.1" · .2" · .25" · .5" · .75" · 1"
For Pre-Weather Event, a Probability of precipitation row appears instead. Pick the forecast chance that should trigger the alert:
10% · 25% · 50% · 75% · 100%
Set this to match your permit.
Setting the Remaining Options
Weather History — include weather since the last inspection with the inspection report.
7 Day Forecast — include the 7-day forecast from the day of inspection in the report. Only appears if your organization has that feature.
Hide Start Inspection Link — turn this on to keep the inspection from being started directly from the site page. The common reason is notify-only: you want to be told when the threshold is crossed, but you don't want to use this form to conduct the inspection.
Under Assigned Individuals (Optional), choose the inspectors assigned to the triggered inspection.
📝 Only people with an inspector role on this site can be assigned.
Saving the Inspection
Click Add.
The inspection appears under the Weather group on Inspections and Weather Events, showing its type and threshold — for example, Post-Weather - Threshold: 0.50 inches.
What Happens Next
ComplianceGo checks each site's weather hourly.
When a site crosses its threshold, an alert is sent to the site's notification recipients — but only to those with the matching switch on. Weather Post-Event covers rain that has fallen and Weather Pre-Event (Forecast) covers forecast rain; with neither switched on, the alert reaches nobody.
No inspection is created for you when the alert is sent. To record the inspection, start it from Available Weather Inspections on the site. The form is listed there whenever the weather trigger is set up, not only after an alert, unless Hide Start Inspection Link is turned on. If an inspection on that form is already open on the site, you'll find that inspection listed instead.
The alert appears on your dashboard under Weather Events and stays visible there for 48 hours from when it was sent.
💡 The setup screens say Weather Event, your dashboard says Weather Events, and the notification switches say Weather Post-Event and Weather Pre-Event (Forecast). The message you're sent when a threshold is crossed is the alert.
⚠️ After an alert fires, you normally won't get another of the same type for 24 hours. The quiet period stops a long storm from sending you the same alert over and over. If the threshold is crossed again inside that 24-hour window, no second alert is sent, unless a completed weather inspection has ended a precipitation quiet period early (see below). Precipitation alerts and forecast alerts have separate quiet periods, so one does not silence the other.
📝 Completing a weather inspection changes the quiet period. The two types work differently. For rain that has fallen (Post Weather Event), completing the inspection while the 24-hour quiet period is running ends it early and starts a 24-hour recovery period. During recovery, only rain that falls after the inspection counts toward your threshold, so you're alerted again only if enough new rain falls. For forecast rain (Pre-Weather Event), completing the inspection while the quiet period is running restarts the 24 hours from the inspection's date, but the quiet period never runs past 48 hours from the original alert.
Completing the inspection doesn't remove the alert from your dashboard. The 48-hour window stays anchored to the original alert and counts alerts that were sent. What changes is how the site is marked. 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. The Scorecard's Weather Events section also counts the inspection under Completed Inspections.
📝 A weather inspection never counts as Missed or Late. It isn't on a schedule, so an uncompleted one won't turn into a missed-inspection figure against the site the way a scheduled inspection would.
FAQ
Q: It rained but I never got an alert.
A: An alert of that type most likely fired already in the last 24 hours, and the quiet period suppressed the second one. Check Weather Events on your dashboard for the earlier alert. This is expected behavior, not a fault. If someone completed a weather inspection after that alert, only rain that fell after the inspection counts toward the threshold for the next 24 hours.
Q: The rainfall total looks lower than what actually fell.
A: Precipitation is measured at the site's mapped location, not the nearest weather station or airport. Check the site's coordinates on the site's edit page.
Q: I got an alert but there's no inspection to start.
A: The form is hidden from the site page. Check whether Hide Start Inspection Link is turned on for this weather trigger.
Q: Nobody on my team was notified.
A: The site's notification recipients aren't subscribed to weather notifications. Open Notification Recipients on the site and switch on Weather Post-Event or Weather Pre-Event (Forecast) for the right people.
Q: The threshold my permit requires isn't in the list.
A: Only the listed values are available. Choose the closest value below your requirement, so the alert goes out rather than being missed.
Q: Do I need a separate setup for rain that already fell and rain that's forecast?
A: Yes. Post Weather Event and Pre-Weather Event are set up separately and tracked separately, and you can have both on the same site.
Related articles
Scheduling a Recurring Inspection
Understanding Inspection Statuses
Setting Up Notification Recipients for a Site