Collaboration Across the Road Weather Enterprise: The Pathfinder Project

CHAPTER 4. THE PATHFINDER PROJECT

In an effort to better serve the end user (decision makers and the traveling public), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) and the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program (RWMP) are working together on an initiative entitled "Surface Transportation Weather Collaboration: The Pathfinder Project." The initiative objective is to build a framework that facilitates collaborative partnerships between NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFO), State Departments of Transportation (DOT), and as applicable, private sector Weather Service Providers (WSP) supporting DOTs. Within the first phase of the initiative, the team identified a singular interstate corridor (Interstate 80) across four States (California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming) with a variety of WFO, DOT, and WSP operational configurations to test the implementation of a cross-entity collaboration framework in a real-world setting (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Photo. I-80 Corridor Shown Across Various Weather Forecast Offices, Department of Transportation, and Weather Service Provider Operational Boundaries.
(Source: Adapted from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website)

BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION

A key mission shared among the Pathfinder participants is to improve safety, mobility, and the economy. Essential to accomplishing this mission is communicating information to decision makers and the public to ensure informed decisions and preparedness when faced with rain, snow, fog, wind, wildfire, or other potentially impactful weather events to the surface transportation system.

Through collaboration on road weather impact messages, weather forecast offices (WFOs), departments of transportation (DOTs), and weather service providers (WSPs) can better serve the needs of users of road weather information, supporting mission fulfillment.

Refer to Appendix A to Learn More
Learn more about Pathfinder project details.

What is the Pathfinder Project?
The Pathfinder project is a joint initiative to save lives, time and money on our nation's roadways by minimizing the impacts of weather through the dissemination of consistent and actionable information.