Un-forecasted Black Ice Event (Beaver Falls, Beaver: live, money, area)

[Hopes]

What about Butler County between Kittanning and Butler? I'm heading that way within the hour.

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by RockLobster

Have already been hearing the complaints about local tv and media weather forecaster's not forecasting the severity of the sunday morning black ice event. Take notice that even the National Weather Service failed to forecast or warn about the dangerous icing until the event had actually begun.

This is not true at all. We watch the news every day, from morning through evening, and multiple stations were saying the possibility of a wintry mix including freezing rain was possible. We found out my wife's grandmother passed away on Friday and remember explicitly discussing the possible bad weather as we would travel to the Youngstown area.

[Little Mizz Pittsburgh]

Originally Posted by NANDOAL

My 23 minute rid3 to work this morning from Churchill to the North Hills took 4 hrs!

[ditchdigger]

The state and townships consider it a waste of money to clear roads when people can easily just stay home. As a taxpayer, I consider it a waste of money too.

Hopes, would you consider it a waste of money if you had a heart attack at home and had to wait for an ambulance to make its way there, then to the hospital, over the icy roads?

It's a public safety issue, whether sensible people stay at home or not.

BTW, here's an article from the PG: Treacherous ice hit in an instant

If you look at the picture, "Ice 6" you can see me sitting in the traffic. (That's what? About five seconds worth of my 15 minutes of fame?)

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

Hopes, would you consider it a waste of money if you had a heart attack at home and had to wait for an ambulance to make its way there, then to the hospital, over the icy roads?

It's a public safety issue, whether sensible people stay at home or not.

BTW, here's an article from the PG: Treacherous ice hit in an instant

If you look at the picture, "Ice 6" you can see me sitting in the traffic. (That's what? About five seconds worth of my 15 minutes of fame?)

I'm guessing you're the one in the blue pick-up?

So, yeah...the actual forecast black ice event never took place. The roads were a little wet, actually, completely dry in some areas this morning when I headed out at 4:15am. But damn that Mother Nature, she completely ruined one of the best meteor showers of the year last night!!!

[ditchdigger]

Yep, that's me. Going nowhere fast...

[pic-chic]

In some places in New England, they have sensors in the road that send signals back to the road crew headquarters with info about precipitation and temperature. That's part of what they use to decide exactly where and when to deploy trucks.
And I distinctly remember hearing that freezing rain was possible. Anytime it's possible, the roads should be presalted and the trucks positioned for deployment. Period.
And weekends are just as crucial as weekdays. If someone could prove that the state is lax on weekends, the family of anyone who died in a crash due to unsalted roads would have an suit. If I go into labor on a weekend (due in Feb), I'd better not have to deal with unsalted, icy roads to get to the hospital. As a taxpayer, I want the roads to be clear and safe at all times so that cops, firetrucks, and ambulances can get through.

[ditchdigger]

In some places in New England, they have sensors in the road that send signals back to the road crew headquarters with info about precipitation and temperature.

Funny you should mention that.

PennDOT has such a system too. It's called the Road Weather Information System (RWIS).

http://www.rwis.state.pa.us/site/site.nsf/mainpage

Don't waste your time clicking that link, it'll tell you you need a password to access it.

Prior to late last winter, you could access the sites and see for yourself the road surface and subsurface temperatures, conditions, and whether a deicing agent was in use. For much of last winter, many of the sites in District 11 (that's the PennDOT district here around the Burgh), were offline for "maintenance".

When it was all up and running, I kinda liked that my tax dollars were working for me that way. For some reason, they don't work that way now.

I actually sent PennDOT an email earlier this evening asking what's up with RWIS. I'll post the answer if I get one...

[pic-chic]

I actually sent PennDOT an email earlier this evening asking what's up with RWIS. I'll post the answer if I get one...

Sounds like it's offline for them, too. Thanks!

[ditchdigger]

Well, I have to say I'm impressed with the responsiveness of PennDOT.

I got a reply before 9 a.m today.

While I'm disappointd that the RWIS information is no longer available, I commend and thank Jason Norville for being so forthcoming in his reply. I'm sure he has more important stuff to do than confer with me.

Thank you for your recent inquiry concerning the PennDOT RWIS Website.

While we appreciate the value you have attached to RWIS, we feel it falls short of being an effective public information source and therefore we had no choice but to take it down while we consider steps to improve its quality.

In the meantime, we invite people to visit our PA 511 and Travelers Information page (511PA - Travel Info To Go) where we have more than 400 cameras that people can use to see travel conditions, up-to-the-minute traffic, transit and weather information they need to help them reach their destination.

Thank you,

Jason M Norville | Winter Services Manager