The National Weather Service (NWS) is expanding its Travel Hazard Decision Support web page that brings weather impacts and highways into focus for those trying to determine a safe time to travel.
Vernon Preston, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Pocatello, said a team of weather forecasters and web designers helped develop this collaborative effort between the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and NWS Pocatello over the past four years.
Recently, the Travel Decision Support page was given the green light to expand across the western United States and eventually nation-wide in 2015.Preston said, “The idea of combining weather hazards with impacts for the traveling public was a natural fit for the ITD goal of “Towards Zero Deaths” and the NWS mission to “Save Lives and Property.””
It’s available on the NWS Pocatello webpage at: http://www.weather.gov/Pocatello(look on the page’s left side for “Travel” under the yellow “Forecasts” tab).There is also a mobile version.
The web page takes forecast data from the NWS and combines hazard criteria developed by ITD to display hazard colors: green meaning no impacts, yellow some, red many, and magenta significant. Simply click on a road segment and a popup box will display the forecast and potential hazards. The web page allows the user to change the criteria to meet their own needs.
“This new version,” Preston said, “allows the user to enter their trip’s beginning and ending point – say Idaho Falls to Portland, Oregon – and see weather hazards, warnings and the worst conditions a driver might encounter along the route. It adjusts to each 6-hour travel time segment during the journey.”
The web page is updated throughout the day as new forecast information becomes available and allows the user to follow the travel weather out to three days. The page shows more roads on the display each time you zoom in. Links are available to each State’s Transportation 911 travel page nationwide. Preston noted that this page will eventually be available nationwide over the coming year.
“It’s where the weather meets the road,” Preston emphasized.
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