In mountainous areas with limited rain gauges, a new method called SM2RAIN uses soil moisture to estimate rainfall. Researchers tested this method in the Qilian Mountains, China, across different environments. They found that SM2RAIN works better in meadows than forests (due to tree cover) or farmland (due to irrigation). The method can also show how well forests hold onto rain and how irrigation affects fields. SM2RAIN-ASCAT and CMFD, other rainfall estimates, did similarly well. By adjusting SM2RAIN with more detailed soil moisture data and corrections, it can improve how it predicts rain in these hard-to-study areas.