Roads

  

We offer a range of OpenRoad training courses which can be hosted at the world renowned Met Office College in Exeter, or held at your own premises. Courses are designed to help you make the most of your forecasts. They will enable you to assess the risk to the road network in any weather situation and make informed decisions about winter road maintenance.   All courses combine theoretical knowledge with practical examples and can be tailored to meet your needs and requirements. Courses are taught by expert road forecasters Mike Mason and Colin McAllister. Current OpenRoad courses include the following. Introduction Basic Refresher Weather and the web What our customers say... "Weather plays the major influencing role for winter road maintenance decision making. However, road engineers are faced with the daunting task of making the correct decision based on a wide variety of information sources. Met Office OpenRoad training courses enable engineers to understand both the value and, more importantly, the limitations of the various weather information sources." Highways Agency

For inspectors and drivers:

• half-day programme;
• gives inspectors and drivers a basic knowledge of road weather;
• demonstrates how to understand the basic principles of sensors and forecast information;
• enables attendees to distinguish relevant weather observations.

Course content

• Where does UK weather come from?
• Understanding the difference between hoar frost and black ice, rain and showers, freezing rain and snow.
• Road temperature effects due to the time of year, cloud amount, and other factors.
• Understanding available sensor data.
• Understanding forecasts and their limitations.

For decision-makers and road engineers:

• one-day programme;
• provides knowledge on how to interpret forecast services;
• helps with the decision making process with respect to winter maintenance.

Course content 

Introduction

Technical infrastructure (hardware, communications and thermal mapping)

Road temperatures:

• factors governing road temperature;
• relationship with air temperature;
• relationship with other ground temperatures;
• use of forecast thermal maps.

Road states:

• sources of moisture;
• ice;
• hoar frost, dew and flash frosts;
• fog and freezing fog;
• sleet, hail and freezing rain;
• salt wash-off;
• porous asphalt;
• other sources of moisture.

Snow:

• types of snow;
• local variations of snow with altitude and with precipitation intensity.

Information sources on snow:

• text forecasts;
• site-specific snow prediction;
• weather radar;
• limitations.

New-generation weather radar

Limitations (meteorological and technical):

• uncertainty and confidence factors;
• sensor and thermal map accuracy;
• apparent large errors on forecast graphs;
• advice in marginal situations.

Practical sessions (including case studies of weather radar)

Questions and course wrap-up

For established and experienced road engineers:

• One-day programme;
• Provides engineers with knowledge to make strategic decision on future forecast services and possible plant requirements.

Course content

Arrivals and introduction

Refresher, including:

• marginal nights due to variable cloud;
• forecasting snow events;
• remote sensor developments.

Climate change update: the latest position and likely impacts on transport

Probability forecasts - what they are, and practical uses and limitations

Web products and their uses

Questions and course wrap-up

For road maintenance decision-makers and highway engineers who are users of the web product:

• One-day programme
• Provides in-depth knowledge of the web product to help users make informed decisions.

Course content

Arrivals and introduction

Review of air-mass theory

• Characteristics of weather within an air mass.
• Typical maintenance problems associated with the air mass.

Air-mass practical sessions

• Decision-making using synoptic charts.

Satellite theory and satellite practical sessions

• Differences between visible and infrared satellite images.
• Exercise using satellite imagery to assist decision-making process.

Radar theory and interpretation

• Interpret all radar images.
• Differentiate between showers and rain.
• Practical use of forecast radar.

Weather on the web including practical exercise

• Interpret OpenRoad products on the web, how they should be used and when.

Weather case study and road scenarios

• Identifying and interpreting weather data.
• Prioritise information use when making an operational decision.
• Relaying weather situations to colleagues.

Questions and course wrap up

Courses are conducted all year round, so for more information on courses and dates please contact our 24-hour Customer Centre or contact openroad@metoffice.gov.uk.

OpenRoad is a registered trademark of the Met Office.