Weather affects irrigation work differently from mowing or spraying. Rain does not stop most sprinkler work, and techs get wet all the time. Cold does. A system started too early can be damaged by a late freeze, and a system not blown out in time can crack when the first hard freeze hits. Lightning stops everything. The skill is knowing which weather actually matters, deciding early, and telling customers clearly. No software watches the forecast and moves your jobs for you, and you would not want it to. Here is how to make the call and handle the reschedule.
Which weather actually matters
Light rain does not stop startups, checks or most repairs. You can still run zones, replace heads and fix valves in the rain, though it is harder to see coverage problems when the lawn is already wet. Heavy rain makes digging messy and can flood valve boxes, which slows repairs but rarely stops them.
The weather that matters most is cold and lightning. Freezing temperatures threaten pressurized systems, especially exposed backflow devices and above-ground pipe. Lightning is a safety issue for anyone standing in a wet yard. High heat is mostly a crew safety issue: plan water and breaks on the hottest days. Make your weather calls based on these, and do not cancel a day for a light shower that your techs can work through.
Freeze risk in spring
The worst spring mistake is starting up a system the week before a hard freeze. The backflow device and any exposed pipe hold water, and a freeze can crack them. That is a repair you caused.
Watch the extended forecast in the days before your startup season and during the first weeks of it. If a hard freeze is likely after you start, hold off on startups or prioritize systems where the backflow is protected. If you have already started systems and a freeze is coming, tell those customers what to do: many companies advise shutting off the main and opening the backflow test cocks or drain until the cold passes, or offer to come back and do it. The exact advice depends on the system, so give the instructions your techs actually follow, not a generic one.
The fall freeze deadline
In fall, the forecast tells you how much time you have left. When a hard freeze shows up in the extended forecast and you still have systems to blow out, change the order. Exposed, above-ground backflow devices and systems with pipe in unheated spaces go first. Systems with the backflow in an insulated enclosure or a basement shutoff can wait a little longer.
Tell waiting customers the truth: their blowout is scheduled, a freeze is coming, and here is how to protect the system in the meantime if they want to. Most customers appreciate a clear message more than they resent a delay. Routing fall blowouts covers the route side of the freeze race.
Lightning, storms and a day that falls apart
When storms build in the afternoon, send crews to a truck or building at the first thunder and wait it out. Most storms pass in an hour. If storms are forecast all day, cancel the day early so customers are not waiting.
When you do cancel, move the whole day rather than spreading the stops across the week. In the software, rescheduling a day moves those jobs and sends customers a reschedule text automatically, so nobody waits at home for a tech who is not coming. The office makes the decision. The software does the moving and the messaging. Send the reschedule the night before when you can, because a text at 7 a.m. reaches customers who have already left the garage open for you.
Rescheduling without losing the plan
After a lost day, the rest of the schedule has to absorb it. In the rush seasons, that matters. One lost day of startups is ten or fifteen customers pushed back. Decide how to catch up: work the next Saturday, add a few stops to each of the next several days, or push everything back a day and tell customers.
Avoid scattering rescheduled jobs into random gaps. That breaks your neighborhood routes and costs more drive time than the original delay. Moving a whole day to the next open day keeps the route intact. Jobs that cannot move with the day, such as a customer who can only be home Tuesday, go back on the Waiting List or the Pending Jobs board and get placed by hand. The scheduling page shows how days and trucks are laid out.
Rain, controllers and summer calls
Summer weather creates its own calls. After a week of heavy rain, customers notice their sprinklers running in a downpour and wonder why. After a dry spell, they notice brown spots and assume a zone has failed. Both are chances to help and to sell.
A rain sensor or a weather-adjusting controller can keep a system from running in the rain. Many controllers support one, and many customers do not have one. Offering to add it during a startup or midseason check is a simple upgrade that saves water. For brown spots in dry weather, the first step is to check whether the zone is running at all, then check coverage and run times. Often the answer is a controller program set for spring that was never adjusted for summer heat. Note what you found and what you changed on the property, so the next tech knows the program history.
What to tell customers about weather
Set expectations before the season starts. Tell customers in your spring message that startups depend on freeze risk and may shift, and that you will text them if their date changes. Tell them in fall that winterizations run until the freeze and that early sign-ups get scheduled first. A customer who knows how you handle weather is far more patient when it happens.
Keep your weather messages short and specific: what changed, the new date, and anything they should do. Do not overpromise a date you cannot keep during a stormy week. For plan customers, being early in the queue is part of what they paid for, so honor it when you reshuffle after a weather delay. Good weather communication is a big reason customers stay with one company year after year. See planning the irrigation year for the bigger calendar.
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