Weather information is available to us at the click of a button. There are free and paid weather apps abundant for mobile devices. Searching “weather” on the web will produce millions of hits with weather data for your location. Will this weather data be accurate? How often is this information updated? Are there actual people behind the forecast, or is it just model data? All this information can be overwhelming, and it can lead to confusion or even misrepresentation of the true information within the forecast for your location. On top of all of this confusion, one must understand the importance of how the weather information will impact your operations and decision-making. t every forecast is created the same or made for the same audience. Having a basic understanding of when, why, and how the information is generated will help justify your decision-making. Once you have become comfortable with the weather forecast information you receive, then it is time to understand how the weather will impact the pavement. Just because the weather forecast indicates that your area will receive sw, it does t necessarily mean your pavement conditions will require maintenance. On the other hand, there are certain weather conditions that will seem benign but result in challenging road conditions (i.e. frost or blowing sw). Understanding the correlation between a weather forecast and a pavement weather forecast is critical for your operational decision-making.

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be better able to:

• Identify the key weather variables necessary to generate a pavement forecast.
• Critique different weather forecasts that can be used to make operational winter maintenance decisions.
• Recognize the value of a pavement forecast for operational winter maintenance decision-making.

Contributor/Source

Ben Hershey

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