Accurate precipitation monitoring is crucial for understanding climate
change and rainfall-driven hazards at a local scale. However, the
current suite of monitoring approaches have different insufficiencies,
including low spatial and temporal resolutions, and the inability to
monitor potentially destructive precipitation events such as hailstorms.
In this study, we develop an array-based solution to monitor rainfall
with seismic nodal stations, offering both high spatial and high
temporal resolutions. We analyze seismic records from densely spaced,
high-frequency seismometers in Oklahoma, and identify signals from all 9
precipitation events that occurred during the one-month station
deployment in 2016. After removing anthropogenic noise and Earth
structure response, the obtained precipitation spatial pattern mimics
the one from an operational weather radar, while offering higher spatial
and temporal resolutions. We further show the potential of this approach
to monitor hail with joint analysis of seismic intensity and independent
precipitation rate measurements, and advocate for coordinated
seismological-meteorological field campaign design.