Development of the Nebraska Department of Transportation Winter Severity Index – Phase II

The Nebraska Winter Severity Index (NEWINS) was previously developed (Phase I, NDOT Report No. SPR-P1-(17)M054; Walker et al. 2018) to provide an independent, historic meteorological baseline of individual winter storm severity and overall, statewide winter seasonal severity. The NEWINS framework identified six winter storm categories based on their expected impacts to NDOT winter maintenance operations and mobility. Subsequent work assessed the NEWINS in the context of the Maintenance Decision Support System and with respect to weather-related vehicular crash severity. The proposed work seeks to facilitate the next phase in the expansion of NEWINS by leveraging its framework and algorithms in support of forecasting and predicting the anticipated severity of winter storms. The prediction relevant input data will be obtained from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) which is populated from National Weather Service forecasts. The NEWINS algorithms will be run on the digital forecast database in order to produce an expected, or forecasted, winter storm classification at various time increments in advance of the storm. An additional advantage of the NDFD is that NEWINS predictions are no longer restricted to NDOT district-level resolution. NEWINS can now be computed for smaller regions including although not limited to superintendent maintenance areas, specific roadway corridors (e.g., Interstate 80), and for individual counties throughout the state. Further, the NDFD could facilitate inclusion of a freezing rain parameter within the previously developed NEWINS.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $183,603.00
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Nebraska Department of Transportation

  1500 Nebraska 2
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68502
• Project Managers:

  Halsey, Lieska

• Principal Investigators:

  Anderson, Mark

  Walker, Curtis

• Start Date: 20220701
• Expected Completion Date: 20240531
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Weather and climate; Winter; Winter maintenance
• Identifier Terms: Nebraska Department of Transportation
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Research; I15: Environment; I62: Winter Maintenance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01849037
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Nebraska Department of Transportation
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jun 21 2022 3:57PM