An Analysis of the Communication of Winter Road Hazards between the NWS and Its Transportation Partners

Dufort, Jilliann A.; Reeves, Heather D.; Tobin, Dana M.; Maciag, Taylor A.; Berry, Kodi; Krocak, Makenzie

doi:10.1175/WAF-D-25-0143.1

i

An Analysis of the Communication of Winter Road Hazards between the NWS and Its Transportation Partners

2026
By Dufort, Jilliann A. ; Reeves, Heather D. ; Tobin, Dana M. ; ...

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Journal Title:

Weather and Forecasting
Personal Author:

Dufort, Jilliann A. ; Reeves, Heather D. ; Tobin, Dana M. ; Maciag, Taylor A. ; Berry, Kodi ; Krocak, Makenzie
NOAA Program & Office:

NWS (National Weather Service) ; OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences) ; CIWRO (Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations) ; HPC (Weather Prediction Center) ; NSSL (National Severe Storms Laboratory)
Description:

Past research indicates that drivers who utilize government sources, such as the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Department of Transportation (DOT), to inform their travel decisions during inclement weather are more likely to change their travel behavior. Therefore, collaboration and communication between the NWS and its stakeholders are vitally important to ensure consistency with road hazard messages. This study aims to obtain insight into the relationships between Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) and their transportation partners with regard to how road hazard information is passed between these entities. An NWS-wide survey was conducted during winter 2023/24, which collected both qualitative and quantitative data. Analysis of survey data reveals that forecasters are in consensus over who they collaborate with, the communication channels used, the information they provide, and the importance and benefit of utilizing probabilistic guidance within road hazard messages to convey uncertainty. However, participant responses vary regarding strongly worded messages that imply road weather impacts, which suggests differing interpretations of the NWS directives. The level of collaboration WFOs have with DOTs is not consistent between respondents and appears to rely on the needs of the DOT office and their participation within the Pathfinder initiative. Additionally, forecasters appear to prefer probabilistic tools but anticipate interpretation difficulty and misunderstandings of probabilistic guidance by end users. Along with highlighting the current collaborative efforts between the NWS and its end users, the findings from this research will be utilized to inform future iterations of testbed evaluations to mitigate challenges during the development and testing of decision-support tools.
Source:

Weather and Forecasting, 41(6), 1163-1179
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-25-0143.1
ISSN:

0882-8156 ; 1520-0434
Format:

PDF
Publisher:

American Meteorological Society
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

Grant no. NA22OAR4590529 ; Grant no. NA21OAR4320204
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:381371a22763b70a6844de10b0259ca19ff459eae2de898c967d163a834a7b6f2b3fbea15938930e36a95496227a54a6ac0773547a20de9cf6b76a674fe1a8d2
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/73559/noaa_73559_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 35.58 MB ]

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