Switching to the new Mountain Rain or Snow app

In November 2023, Mountain Rain or Snow officially began using a new app. The old app, however, must be manually removed from your devices - you could say it is a "zombie app" since it has been decommissioned and is no longer update-able, and yet stubbornly persists on some users' browsers due to a few built-in settings.

That means we are looking to you, the observers using the zombie app, to remove this old app from your devices once and for all, so that we can ensure that your valuable observations land in the correct database. Your help to do this is important for our project both scientifically and logistically.

Below, you will find the steps for removing the old app and setting up the new app. If at any point you have questions or concerns, please reach out to us. Email: sonia.nieminen@dri.edu, call: 775-673-7364, text: 855-909-0798

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How do I know if I'm using the right app?

The new app looks similar to the old app, but there are a few key giveaways. If you joined Mountain Rain or Snow after November 2023, you could not have ever accessed the old app, so no action is needed. If you were a Mountain Rain or Snow observer in or before November 2023, please continue reading to see if you are using the correct app. 

On the page with the options to choose precipitation type (rain, snow, mix), is there a sentence that reads, "Send us updates in real-time whenever it's raining, snowing, or a wintry mix"? If there is, you're using the old app. The new app does not have this sentence on the data selection page.

Another key difference is that the new app has buttons at the top of the page. These are: Refresh GPS, Accessible page, and How to/FAQs. These buttons do not exist in the old app.

Also, we switched the order of the rain, snow, and mix buttons on the new app. The order from left to right in the old app is rain, snow in the middle, and mix last, but on the new app, the order is rain, mix in the middle, and snow last. 

I'm still using the old app. What now?

You can be rid of the old app and set up with the new app in just a few minutes. Find the section for your device type below and follow the steps in order. Please be sure to do this process for all devices and browsers that you use to submit observations.

I'm using an iPhone or iPad (Safari browser)

1. Open your device's general Settings then scroll down to Safari.

2. Scroll down to the option that says Advanced, then click on Website Data

3. Scroll through the list of websites until you find rainorsnow.app

4. Click Edit, then click the red circle next to rainorsnow.app to remove the data. This will only affect the Mountain Rain or Snow web app itself, not the rest of your websites.

5. If you have an icon saved on your device's home screen for the Mountain Rain or Snow app, press and hold to remove it.

6. Hooray, the zombie app is gone! Follow this link to get set up with the new web app (read step 7 first, though). We have already created an account for you using the email you used in our old web app, so all you need to do is reset the password. Of course, you can also create a new account using a different email address if you prefer, or submit as a guest user.

7. The new web app will ask if you want to install a home screen icon. While optional, this is a great way to make it easily accessible. But first, please sign in and make sure that the app finds your location (you see numbers for latitude and longitude) before clicking the install button. If you install the app before making sure that location works, you may end up having to uninstall the app, change its website settings in Safari, and then reinstall the app for location to load properly. If you are having any trouble with location, please check out the iOS location help section of our FAQ page.

Please also follow the steps for any other devices that you use to submit observations. If you use multiple browsers on the same device, please double check there, too.

I'm using an Android phone or tablet (Chrome browser)

1. Open rainorsnow.app in your browser.

2. On the lefthand side of the address bar of the browser, click the button with the small circles and dashes (View Site Info).

3. Click Cookies and Site Data. Then, Click the delete/trash button. This will only affect the Mountain Rain or Snow web app.

4. If you have an icon saved on your device's home screen for the Mountain Rain or Snow app, press and hold to remove it.

5. Hooray, the zombie app is gone! Follow this link to get set up with the new web app. The new app will ask if you want to install an icon for easier access (optional, but helpful!). We have already created an account for you using the email you used in our old app, so all you need to do is reset the password. Of course, you can also create a new account using a different email address if you prefer, or submit as a guest user.

Please also follow the steps for any other devices that you use to submit observations. If you use multiple browsers on the same device, please double check there, too.

I'm using a laptop or desktop computer

Please do not use the app – old or new – on a desktop computer or laptop. The GPS data is often wrong on these types of devices, so using a phone or tablet is important. If you are using the old app from a laptop or desktop, please follow these steps to set up the new app on a phone or tablet instead:

1. Follow this link to open the new web app. 

2. We have already created an account for you using the email you used in our old app, so all you need to do is reset the password. Of course, you can also create a new account using a different email address if you prefer, or submit as a guest user.

Please also follow the steps for any other devices that you use to submit observations. If you use multiple browsers on the same device, please double check there, too.

I'm using a different device option or have questions

In this case, please reach out to us! We would be happy to help. The general procedure is (1) clearing the cache for rainorsnow.app, (2) removing any existing bookmarks, and (3) accessing the new app and resetting the password if we already created an account for your email address.