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

Title:

Nowcasting Winter Precipitation with Radar

Abstract:

RainCast, a new method of nowcasting with radar is presented. The method has been developed for extrapolating radar images. Forecasted images and forecasts of probability of precipitation up to one to two hours in advance are available every five minutes. The procedure can be applied to summer and winter precipitation. The use in winter precipitation is discussed here. The properties of the radar estimates in rain, melting snow, and snowfall; and their impacts on the short-term forecasts are summarized. In the second part we analyze a sudden snowstorm that was responsible for a series of accidents and chaotic situations in the Swiss morning traffic. The propagating frontal line, associated with the snowstorm, is reliably predicted with RainCast. For effective warning, "snow signatures", retrieved from ground data of temperature and precipitation must be recognized. Incorporated in the RainCast system, this leads to a significant improvement of the effectiveness of storm warnings based on extrapolated radar data.

Source(s):

10th Standing International Road WEather Conference (SIRWEC); Atmospheric Science, ETH (Switzerland)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228410289_Nowcasting_winter_precipitation_with_radar

Date: 2000

Author:

Schmid

Keywords:


Precipitation
Rain
Snow

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