Road Weather Management Program
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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Title:

Forecasting Terrain-Dependent Weather Conditions: Details of a Model Chain Sequence

Abstract:

To forecast terrain-dependent weather conditions with a focus on hazardous road conditions (such as icing and high winds), a model chain has been developed. In this chain, a series of three weather modeling programs have been linked together, successively nesting the mesh of one regional model inside another. As each analysis progresses, successive forecast conditions are written to files and passed to computational servers at Montana State University (MSU). At MSU, these meteorological files are used to define environment conditions (such as long- and shortwave radiation, cloud cover, precipitation, and convective effects) in RadTherm. As successive forecast models become complete, forecast data are graphed alongside real-time measured data and posted on the Internet. To allow viewers to evaluate the validity of the current forecast, graphs corresponding to weather station sites are updated hourly, typically by extracting measured data from websites associated with the given station. These same data sets can then be compared on a weekly basis for long-term performance evaluation and improvement.

Source(s):

6th International Symposium on Snow Removal and Ice Control Technology, Transportation Research Circular, No. E-C063

http://trb.org/publications/circulars/ec063.pdf

Date: 2004

Author:

McKittrick, et al

Keywords:


Adverse weather

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