Filling the Gaps in Weather Data for the Transportation Industry A View from the Private Sector’s Perspective Jeff Johnson, CCM DTN Meteorlogix.

Filling the Gaps in Weather Data for the Transportation Industry

A View from the Private Sector’s Perspective

Jeff Johnson, CCMDTN Meteorlogix

Customer Experience – Surface Transportation

• State DOT’s• Municipalities• County Highway Depts.• Airports• Private contractors• Railways

Data Our Clients Need To Plan Their Tactics

Critical Weather Parameters or Products• Pavement temperature• Start and stop time for precipitation and amount• Dense fog potential (<1/4 mile)• Heavy rainfall that causes flooding• Wind speeds greater than 35 mph• Drifting snow on roads• Freezing drizzle and freezing rain• Frost on pavement• Alerts for imminent significant weather• Consultations

Where We Need to Fill the Gaps

• # 1 Precipitation area and amount• First 12 hours is the most critical• Precipitation field is manually edited using GFE• Verification results show a large improvement

over raw model input

NAM Edited

Where We Need to Fill the Gaps

• Other Short term (0-12 hrs) critical items• Low visibility (traffic speed)• Frost, freezing precipitation (accident prevention)• Strong winds (drifting snow, falling debris)• Flooding rains (blocked roads)• Variability across a region (scattered impacts)• All Clear Notice (release crews)

What is Needed to Help Fill Gaps?

• More frequent short term, high resolution model updates out to 12 hours

• Better depiction of mesoscale precipitation areas

• Real-time reporting of snow amounts as the snow falls

• More visibility reporting locations• More reporting of current road conditions

Clear Communication of the Weather Forecast is Imperative

DTN MDSS Solution -• Simple display• Integrated current and forecast weather• Treatment recommendations• Hour by hour detail

DTN MDSS Hourly Forecast View

FHWA TREATMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

AirBridgeRoad

BridgeRoad

Frost

Snow, Next 24 Hours

Snow, 24-48 Hours

Tonight’s Lows

Table Graphs

Snow likely continuing through mid-day tomorrow with accumulations of 2-3”. Overnight winds gusting to 25mph. Today’s high: 40 Tonight’s low: 32

GRAPHICAL View of Data24-Hr Forecast Summary

Consultation with a Meteorologist

Rain / wet snow mix and high winds pummeling NE12:00am EDT

Late winter storm will lash New England with rain of up to 3-4 inches mixed with heavy wet snow. Snow will predominate in New York and Maine today with rain changing to snow throughout the New England area overnight.

Winds gusting to 40-50mph will lash the entire area today. There is also potential for overnight temps to dip to freezing but pavement temps should stay above freezing with the possible exception of Maine.The storm will persist into Thursday with winds highest along the coast, and More …

Forecast animationClick

Northeast Transportation

What are the chances that the rain will freeze tonight?Tony DeAngelo, Framingham, MA, 4/16, 3:14 EDTIn the MA area we don’t expect any freezing rain as the ground / pavement temps are warm enough.Jeff Johnson, DTN Meteorologist, 4/16, 3:25 EDTWith these high winds how severe is blowing snow expected to be?Thomas Browne, Syracuse NY, 4/16, 3:31 EDT

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Decision Support Products for High Impact Events – Example from Another Industry

• Hurricane damage estimates• Prediction of power outages based

upon track forecast for tropical cyclones

Damage Estimates by County