01371215

Component

http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/167060.aspx

http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/167060.aspx

The National Weather Service (NWS) has adopted extensible markup language standards for distributing weather alerts in a format known as Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). Following that release, Castle Rock worked with the Iowa Department of Transportation, the Idaho Transportation Department, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, the Indiana Department of Transportation, and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments to develop a CAP-importing module that pulls automated weather watches and warnings into these agencies’ statewide or regional 511 traveler information systems. NWS warnings are imported automatically and translated into the Traffic Management Data Dictionary (TMDD) standard for traffic reporting. The TMDD messages use a controlled set of standard phrases in order to convey the information through 511 and other public channels. NWS issues watches and warnings at the county or weather zone level. The Phase-1 system developed in this project maps those polygon-based conditions to individual stretches of roadways so that they can be announced on the 511 phone system. Zone-based weather reporting, however, does not always provide the desired level of precision, particularly when it comes to fast-moving storm systems or tornado corridors. The states and Castle Rock are now pursuing a Phase-2 deployment of the CAP importing system that pulls in gridded weather data feeds from NWS. Gridded weather data allows the display of weather events across a grid of 5-km cells. Additionally, imports of NWS polygons will be pursued under Phase 2 for reporting severe thunderstorms, flash flood warnings, and tornadoes. The size and shape of severely weather-affected areas change continually as the weather event progresses. Representing these changing conditions accurately and simply for the general public is the goal of moving beyond zoned-based CAP warnings.

01371195

WM-STW12-125

English

pp 535-542

2012-4

Transportation Research Circular

International Conference on Winter Maintenance and Surface Transportation Weather

Web

Figures; Maps; References

Standards; Thunderstorms; Tornadoes; Traveler information and communication systems; Weather conditions

511 (National Travel Information Number); Common Alerting Protocol; U.S. National Weather Service

Flash floods

Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Operations and Traffic Management; I62: Winter Maintenance; I73: Traffic Control

TRIS, TRB

May 18 2012 5:03PM