Smart Snowplows Aim to Make Winters Safer

In a push to save money and lives this winter, four U.S. states are dispatching smart snowplows to gather information on road and weather conditions in almost real-time.

The high-tech vehicles are part of a new digital intelligence system that is being rolled out for testing in parts of Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and New York.

The system integrates GPS-coded measurements from sensors on the snowplows with computer weather models and satellite and radar observations to produce updates every five to 15 minutes on the road, as well as weather conditions.

These detailed, close-to-real-time snapshots are then relayed to transportation officials in the hope that they will be able to target the most dangerous stretches of highway before accidents happen.

"We want to reduce that white-knuckle experience of suddenly skidding on ice," scientist Sheldon Drobot, who oversees the design of the system at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement. With funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation, NCAR developed the system, which is called the Pikalert Enhanced Maintenance Decision Support System.

"This offers the potential to transform winter driving safety," Drobot added. "It gives road crews an incredibly detailed, mile-by-mile view of road conditions. They can quickly identify the stretches where dangerous ice and snow are building up."

Far-apart observing stations on the ground, which most transportation officials currently rely on for their data, may not be able to pick up localized changes in road conditions that could make for hazardous driving, such as an ice patch developing along a shaded curve.

The smart snowplows, meanwhile, will measure weather conditions like temperature and humidity, picking up subtle changes as they drive. The vehicles will also measure road conditions based on indirect clues like whether the plow's antilock brakes activate and whether its windshield wipers are on.

Beyond preventing tragedy on icy roads, the creators of EMDSS hope the system will save states money. Clearing snow and ice is an expensive operation, and unnecessarily laying down sand, salt or chemicals might not only waste funds, but could also harm the environment, according to NCAR.

Officials with NCAR, which is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation, said EMDSS eventually could be distributed by private vendors or be used in other states if it proves successful this winter.

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Yahoo Makes Its iOS Weather App iPad-Friendly, To The Everlasting Joy Of Those Who Miss A Native One

Yahoo’s new direction under Marissa Mayer is still coming together, but one thing they’ve unquestionably done right is the weather app for iPhone they debuted earlier this year. The iPad version has just been released, and it’s about as close to a native iPad weather app as you can get, given the similarity in design choices between Apple’s native iPhone weather app and that of Yahoo’s third-party version.
It feels at home on the iPad, but it also probably exceeds whatever Apple would’ve done, taking the two iPhone weather apps from either party as a point of reference. The app uses your device’s location to find imagery from Flickr to populate the background, and more often than not, those reflect actual current conditions on the ground. Then you can scroll up to get a detailed forecast, including hourly and daily predictions, details, wind speed, precipitation and maps, all of which is presented in a beautiful, cleverly animated but easy-to-read interface.
The app is simple enough in terms of how it works, but it does everything it needs to, and doesn’t clutter things up with too much else. It’s a perfect companion to the iPhone version, and comes as a universal update for the existing free app. Apple provides extremely limited weather information on the iPad, both in the “Today” tab on the new iOS 7 notifications screen, and in the Clock app, but these are limited essentially to current temps or the predicted high for the day. Yahoo’s offering is leaps and bounds better, completely free, and an actual visual treat thanks to the Flickr-sourced imagery.
I still wonder about some of Yahoo’s recent decisions, like a logo design that pretty much ushered Yahoo into the early 1990s, and mail outages that span impossible multiple-day gaps, but the Weather app has been a rock solid product reinvention for them, and the iPad version doesn’t do anything to debate that.

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White Christmas Forecast 2013

Above is the latest official white Christmas forecast for 2013 from The Weather Channel. We will continue to fine tune and update this forecast leading up to Dec. 25, so bookmark this link and check back frequently. This is not a map of "historic probability" or "climatology", but our best forecast at which areas may have a white Christmas.
In the world of meteorological statistics, a white Christmas is defined as having at least one inch of snow on the ground on Christmas morning. No snow has to fall on Christmas Day for this, of course.
Therefore, our forecast takes into account future snowfall and the potential for warm or cold spells to either melt or maintain the snow cover through Christmas morning.
If you'd like a close-up on your region, you can use the links below to jump to those pages

Snow Cover Last Five Years on Christmas Day

Christmas AM Snow Cover Last 5 Years

Images credit: NOAA/NOHRSC

If you think you have "no shot" this year, consider we've had some rather strange Christmas morning snow covers in recent years:
2012:  Parts of the Oklahoma, north Texas and Arkansas saw snow from Winter Storm Euclid on Christmas Day. Record snowiest Christmas Day in Little Rock, Ark. (9 inches). First accumulating Christmas Day snowfall in Dallas/Ft. Worth (0.4 inches) since 1975. Second year in a row with a white Christmas in Amarillo, Texas.
2011:  Least snowy start to season in Buffalo (3 inches) and Rochester (2.5 inches), N.Y.  Brown ground there.
2009:  Oklahoma City record 24-hour snow (14.1 inches) Christmas Eve.  First snow on the ground on Christmas Day in Dallas-Ft. Worth since 1975.
2008:  Record Christmas Day snow cover in Portland, Ore.  Snow had fallen there for 11 straight days, including Christmas Day.
2004:  Snowstorm of record for Corpus Christi, Texas (4.4 inches).  First measurable snowfall in Brownsville, Texas (1.5 inches) since 1895. A startling 13 inches fell in Brazoria.

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White Christmas

Odds of a white Christmas even higher as bookies predict low chance of snow after unseasonably warm weather

The chances of a white Christmas seem slim as recent bouts of warm weather across the country make the odds of snow higher.
Though it is too early for the Met Office to predict the weather for December 25, bookies are forecasting a balmy Christmas day with the odds of snowfall as high as 10-1 in some parts of the country.
The last white Christmas was in 2010 when temperatures plunged to -17C and snow blanketed more than 80 per cent of the UK's weather stations.

The chances of a white Christmas seem less likely with bookies predicting 10-1 odds in some parts of the country. Snow fell on December 25 in 2010 and 2009 (pictured)

Wet, stormy and windy conditions are expected this year unlike in 2004 when around 60 per cent of the country recorded snowfall (pictured)

The chance of snowfall in London has become slimmer, with bookies raising their odds from 6-1 last week to 8-1 today.

It is even less likely to snow in Bristol and Cardiff, where residents face odds of 9-1, and in Norwich where bookies predict a 10-1 chance of blizzards.
Scots' hopes for a white Christmas remain in tact however, with Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen more likely to be blanketed with odds of 4-1.
With temperatures as high as 13C in some parts of the country, the weather is unseasonably warm for this time of the year when temperatures are expected to stay between 7C and 9C.

 

More...

• 'Storm Emily' set to batter Britain with blizzards and 100mph winds in run up to Christmas
• Bonfire Night's all white! Snow falls in Northern hills with temperatures dipping to freezing point

Though warnings of high winds and gales covered Scotland and Northern Ireland, a Met Office guide revealed there was little to anticipate in most parts of England.
Meteorologist Leon Brown, of the Weather Channel, said: 'It's not going to be a white Christmas, but it will be wet, windy and stormy.
'We'll be in the firing line next week, and over Christmas, for anything developing from the Atlantic.'
Pressure from the jet stream — air currents that act as a barrier between warm and cold weather — will fall south of the UK this weekend, bringing rain and high winds with gusts of up to 80 mph in the north. Heavy rain is then likely to drift south.

The chance of snow on Christmas day is slim in most parts of England while Scots' hopes of a white Christmas remain relatively in tact

A Met Office spokesman said: 'We are moving into unsettled weather, with deepening low pressure and gale force winds. Most of the country will see winds over the next five days, with the worst over northern parts of the UK and high ground.
'We can only predict from five days before Christmas but the indications are that it could be mild. It won't be anything remarkable, not wildly unseasonable, just milder.'
Less rain and fluctuating temperatures have, it seems, confused not only humans but the natural world.
Gardeners north of the Border say plants are flowering beyond their expected season and the shoots of bulbs, which should not be visible until next month, have emerged.

Temperatures as high as 13C have been recorded in some parts of the country this year. 2001 was another year in which snow fell on Christmas day (pictured)

Parts of the UK woke up to an unexpected snow fall in November with temperatures plummeting to -4C

Teesdale in Cumbria was blanketed by heavy snow in November but is less likely to see a white Christmas like the rest of the country

There have been 38 snowy Christmas days in the past 52 years,with 1961 seeing the most snow on ground after 2010 and 2009.

According to the Met Office, snow only falls on average five days in December, compared to 7.6 days in January, 6.8 days in February and six days in March.
White Christmases were more frequent in the 18th and 19th centuries, even more so before the change of calendar in 1752 which effectively brought Christmas day back by 12 days.
Climate change has also brought higher average temperatures over land and sea and this generally reduces the chances of snow during the festive period.
Parts of the country were blanketed by unexpected snowfall in early November, when Arctic blasts plummeted temperatures down to as low as -4C.

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Weather in U.S 24 Hour Ago

Weather in U.S 24 Hour Ago 

A woman walks past Independence Mall in Philadelphia

 

snowstorm. A worker clears snow in front of Independence Hall 

Winter storm halts travel; more snow forecast for Northeast  

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Plummeting Sheets of Ice Damage Cars in Texas

In the aftermath of a bitter ice storm, rising temperatures in North Texas have had a dangerous side effect.
This YouTube clip from Nicole Jaime shows ice falling from the roof of a Plano, Texas apartment complex, damaging parked cars below. Fortunately, the sidewalks were empty when the 2-inch wide chunks fell, and cars were the only causalities.

Jaime's video isn't the only one to show this damaging side effect in action. The clip below from YouTube user juhi2445 captures ice falling from a different apartment complex in the same Dallas suburb, plummeting to the ground and covering parked cars.

The Plano Texas Police Department is warning residents to be cautious while walking near tall buildings and parking their cars.
But some Dallas residents — hopefully in areas where falling ice is less of a threat — are making the most of these conditions, heading out into the cold for some winter fun.

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