Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0
Title:
On the Prediction of Road Conditions by a Combined Road Layer-Atmospheric Model in Winter
Abstract:
An effective forecasting system for slippery road warnings has been operational in Denmark for some years and was recently extended to the whole country except for the island Bornholm. The system is based on a network of road-weather stations throughout the country that submit a continual flow of data, every 10 minutes, to the road master; the data are the current values of road-surface temperature, air temperature, and humidity. An instrument to measure the amount of resting salt is also installed in connection with most stations. Before making any decisions, the road master also has access to very short range weather forecasts that are issued every other hour and are valid for 3 hours. Each forecast is limited to a specific county. So far the forecasts have been worked out manually, but an automatic forecasting system based on a combined model for the prediction of atmospheric and road surface changes has been developed and tested to some extent. The model results are continually adjusted by observations from nearby weather stations so that the predicted parameters can be corrected before they are entered in the combined model. The purpose is to produce a short-range forecast of air temperature, humidity, and road-surface temperature for each of the more than 200 road-weather stations in Denmark. The combined model was tested last winter in five locations in Denmark. Some test results are presented.
Source(s):
Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Record 1387, Danish Meterological Institute (Denmark). For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.
Date: 1992
Author:
Voldborg
Keywords:
Forecast/Prediction
Environmental Sensor Station (ESS)
Pavement temperature
Air temperature
Humidity
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