Over the last few days here in Phoenix, AZ we have had our normal monsoon dust storm aka haboob. During this dust storm my sky was triggered and said it was raining. Yes dust particles were hitting the sky unit with the wind at about 30 mph. It did not start actually raining until about 20 minutes after the dust causing my rain for the storm to be over 1.5 inches when we actually got about .5 inches. I was wondering if this is something that can be eventually worked out with software to rule out dust as rain or even if this was ever looked at. I know that this is a very rare event for most everywhere in the world but quite common in Arizona from June- September. I have attached a picture for anyone who does not know what a haboob is or has ever seen one. 
it’s quite interesting for me, because the dust somehow similar to the rain for the haptic sensor.
I’m looking forward for the weatherflow respond about this kind of event.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
Could have been the high winds oscillating the mast causing false rain.
I had false rain the first time my sky received 22 MPH winds and my mast
was oscillating a bit. The 22 MPH gust lined up on graph with rain graph.
It has happened a few more times, than stopped as I think sky has learned to
reject it. I have had winds to 30 MPH + now with no false rain.
I should add that I have had winds as high as I received during the storm that did not trigger any rain at all. The sky is very securely mounted and does not move at all. Also the rate was incredibly high. I have looked at the data from the other stations in Phoenix that received more of the dust then I did. The rainfall rate during the dust storm was anywhere between 3-16 inches per hour. Then as soon as the dust was gone it was still windy and raining and the rates were normal. I attached another picture that shows it clearly. 1 from my station and 1 from another that got more of the initial impact of the dust storm. You can see the initial jump in “rain” then a break and then the actual rain starts. 
It’s caused by debris in the air. I’ve had the same happen to me but not an extended time.
Hi @steve.a.coffman That is so cool, thanks for sharing! It’s kinda neat that your SKY recorded preliminary falling dust prior to rain drops. We’ve been testing the impact signatures of hail, but haven’t experiment much with dust storms, yet.
Now that you ask, our data science geeks have been working on a pretty sophisticated back end system that should eventually handle this rare situation, and more common weather events alike. Without going into too much detail too soon we’re developing a continuous learning / AI system that evaluates the sensor data against other data sources and advanced forecast models for your exact location. This capability / technology will enable constant auto-calibration and on-the-fly data quality control. Still early, but the initial tests look incredibly promising.
In addition, as we collect and analyze more and more data, the system can learn to discern certain inputs and synoptic conditions (ie. how temperature and winds affect rain). This is not your grandfather’s Costco weather station.