Aspects of Applying Weather Radar Based Nowcast for Highways in Denmark

The Danish road network consists of 73.331 km. of roads. 3.790 km. of these roads are state roads and are considered as major lines of transportation. Although these roads only represent 5% of the total network, 45% of all traffic is moving along these roads. Application of weather radar based nowcast can be used for two scenarios: 1) Safety - reduced visibility and possibility for aquaplaning can jeopardise the safety of the road users 2) Construction and maintenance - ensuring protection against flooding and pollution. The two different applications can represent two different precipitation scenarios. The first is often related to extreme rain intensities while the second can also include less extreme intensities (but maybe higher volume). In both the case of deteriorated traffic conditions and construction phase, a nowcast based on weather radar can provide valuable information on the visibility, rain intensity and rain volume. This can actively be used to optimise basin volumes and to direct critical information to traffic. A system for nowcast dedicated to road applications are under development in Denmark. This paper investigates the different approaches in nowcasting of precipitation on highways. The nowcast is based on a COTREC forecaster which is dynamically adjusted to online rain gauges. The forecast is performed with a lead time of up to 2 hours. The maximum speed on Danish highways varies between 110 and 130 km/h. As a result the performance of the nowcast is very dependent on the movement direction of the precipitation and the direction and speed of the road users. The paper compares and discusses the performance of the nowcast for a selected section of the highway to illustrate the potential in weather radar based forecast for highway applications over long distances.