When surprise hailstorms hit the 6,000 acres Trevor Scherman plants each year with peas, wheat, canola and lentils, his first move isn’t to his truck to assess the damage. These days, it’s to his iPad.

Nine mini-weather stations from the Canadian firm Farmer’s Edge, along with daily satellite imagery from San Francisco-based Planet, provide Scherman with an intimate and easily accessible assessment for each of his fields. The stations, which include a soil probe, measure moisture and temperature in the air and in the root zone, wind speed and direction, and even dewpoint.