A year of rain and snow on the farm, or back home, printed for the wall

From the nearest weather station with a good record for that year, from NOAA’s daily records. Some are National Weather Service stations, some are rain gauges kept by volunteers; the line under the picture says which. The print names the station and how far it is from town, in a small line at the bottom. It’s that station’s gauge, so a storm that hit the farm and missed the station won’t show. If there’s a station closer to the farm, pick it under Weather station, in More options.

When you compare with NOAA’s 30-year normal, a usual year is that normal for the station. When you compare with the station’s full record, it’s the station’s own average over every year it has kept. Either way, a day the station didn’t report is left out of both totals. The print says which one it used.

Missing days show as gaps, never as dry days, and a small line on the print says what a gap is. The page reads the three nearest stations and picks the first with 10 or fewer missing days. A station missing 11 to 31 days can still be drawn, and the line under the print says how many. A station missing more than 31 days in the year gets no print, because the gaps would look like dry weeks that may not have been dry. A morning reading is filed under the day it was read, so an evening storm can show on the next day.

Yes, where the station kept a snowfall record nearly every day. Snow is drawn above the line, never below it, and looks different from rain, so you can tell a snow day from a rain at a glance. If the station didn’t keep snowfall, the snow is still counted, melted down to water the way the gauge measures it, but it can’t be drawn as snow. The year in numbers, under More options, says which.

Mark the planting day and the harvest day, then pick corn or soybeans under More options. Each stage goes on the day the growing degree days at the station reached it, counted from planting the same way as the GDU calculator: each day’s high and low held between 50°F and 86°F, averaged, less 50. Corn stages use Purdue’s NCH-40 numbers for a 2,700 GDU hybrid. Soybeans show emergence and V3 only: their flowering and maturity depend on day length and variety, so they are not drawn. A day with no temperature reading stops the count, and no later stage is claimed. Compare with a usual year runs the same crop on NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normal temperatures and says how many days ahead or behind silking (corn) or V3 (soybeans) came.

From the nearest weather station that kept daily highs and lows that year, often the same one as the rain; the print names it. Frost is a low of 32°F or colder: the last one before August and the first one after July get a small mark on the date line. If a missing reading could hide a later or earlier frost, that frost is left off. The hottest and coldest day go in the small print. Daily temperatures adds a thin band under the chart with each day’s high and low; a day with no reading is a gap.

That’s the Every year behind your year option. Each gray line is another full year the station kept, every day reported, drawn the same way as yours, with your year in blue on top. The two wettest and two driest of them have their year written at the end of the line, and the print says where your year ranks. It needs at least 30 full years, so the print uses the nearest station with that long a record, which may be a few miles farther, and names it. Staircase only.

Yes. Drawing it is free and so are the numbers. Once your year is drawn, open More options, then The year in numbers. It shows the year’s rain and melted snow, the snowfall, the wettest day, the longest dry stretch and, if you pick something to compare with, a usual year’s total. You only pay if you want the print. For rain so far this year in every county, see the county link at the bottom of this page.

Yes. Pick this year in the Year box and order at the regular price. Within 1 business day of paying, I email you a gift card to print for under the tree, with their name, your message and a code they use to see their print. I make the full-year print once the full year is in and send it in January, with a proof to you first. A digital file comes finished in January instead, and I’ll redo it if you want a change.

Yes. Before you pay, tick This is a gift and give their name and your note, then their address at checkout. I ship the print with your note printed at the top of the letter in the box, at no charge. No prices go in the box.

The print ships flat between chipboard; the framed print is packed with corner guards and foam and double-boxed. On top is a one-page letter, so whoever opens it knows what it is: where the rain came from, how to read the print, and the year in numbers, the same ones the print shows, with its serial number. If it’s a gift, your note is printed at the top of that letter. No prices go in the box. The digital file comes by email, so there’s no box.

Yes. Make one and pay for it. When checkout brings you back here, tap Make another for someone else: the town, year and style stay and the words clear for the next one. Or change the town or the year: one for each of the kids, or one for the home farm and one for the rented ground. Each gets its own proof, and shipping is included in each. Ordering 5 or more for a business? See For businesses above.

Yes. Pick the year, anywhere back to 1890 if the station kept records that long, and mark the day itself under Mark a day. You can mark up to 5 days, so the wedding, a birthday and the year’s first harvest can all go on one print. Put the names on the name line and a few words on the line under it.

That’s who I make it for. They already have the boots and the pocketknife. They don’t have the year they still talk about, the drought or the wet spring or the year they bought the place, drawn day by day from the gauge nearest the farm and framed to hang. The order-by date for Christmas is on each choice when you order.

It’s printed on 13 x 19 inch heavy, textured cotton fine-art paper, hung sideways, with the picture 16.5 x 11 inches in the middle and white all around it. It fits a standard 13 x 19 frame with an 11 x 17 mat. The framed one comes in a 13 x 19 black frame with a white mat and a real glass front, ready to hang. Every print I make is numbered, and I initial each one by hand in pencil.

Prints and framed prints ship within 3 business days after you approve the proof, anywhere in the 50 states, Alaska and Hawaii included, and shipping is included in the price. To have a past year by Christmas, anywhere in the 50 states, order by the date shown with your choice: it allows a day for the proof, a day for you to OK it, 3 business days to ship and the time in the mail. The digital file gets a proof by email too; the files come by email within minutes of your OK.

Yes, from 5 prints, each with its own town and year if you like. Every price includes shipping. 5 to 9 prints cost the regular price, on one invoice. 10 to 24 are $40 a print or $79 framed; 25 to 49, $37 or $75; 50 to 100, $35 or $72. From 10 prints, all to one address takes $3 off each print and $6 off each framed. Over 100, ask me. Your message is printed at the top of the letter in the box, not on the print. Your business name stays off the print too; a logo can go on it, small next to the name, if you upload one. Invoice, net 30, W-9 on request.

A print or framed print waits for your OK on the proof, so check the spelling there. If I print something different from the proof you OK’d, I’ll reprint it free. The digital file waits for your OK on the proof too, so check the spelling there; after that, if you want anything changed, write to me and I’ll fix it or redo it by hand and send it again, no charge. If it arrives damaged, glass included, send a photo. If tracking shows it lost, write to me. Either way I’ll reprint or reframe it free, with the same serial number. If you change your mind before I print, I’ll refund you in full. Once it’s printed with your name and dates, I can’t take it back, but I’ll make it right if something’s wrong. For a gift print of this year, if the station ends up missing too many days, I’ll use the next nearest station with your OK, or refund you in full. Write to me at sig@farmers1st.com.

My maker’s mark. It’s also a working QR code. On your finished print, it opens your print’s own page, with the same place, year, style, name and dates. On the preview here, it opens the Rain Print page.