I need help with weather sites

[Donna]

hi -

I'm planning my SoCal trip to Colorado, but I'm having a hard time with various weather sites. So far they all say that part of Cali and Utah and Colo are all "hazardous" for driving. Yet I know people are taking those roads. I'm going straight from Cali to Colo on the 15 and 70. But so far, these sites are saying that it's too hazardous to drive. Do I have the right sites? I got them on the homepage of this site. Maybe I'm reading them wrong. Does the hazardous driving normally let up by the middle of the month? I'm getting nervous about the drive. Maybe I should take a plane!

Also, I'm coming back April 14 and so I thought I wouldn't have any problems at that time. Yet someone I know who lives in Colo says that April is when they get their heaviest snow! So I'm confused!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Well I am confused -- you looked a weather site on the home page of RTA? (www.roadtripamerica.com)? We do have a page dedicated to road and weather conditions and we provide commentary about the various types of weather reporting links available.

OK. A couple of points. Weather and road condition reports are, by definition, "time-specific." Looking at current reports are not, necessarily in themselves accurate predictors of the conditions expected in a couple of weeks.

A couple of days ago -- there was active winter weather conditions in play throughout much of the Utah & Colorado region and therefore some of those highways were considerous hazardous. Hazardous does not mean closed -- traffic on the major roadways continued to move smoothly during the watch period, albeit slower than it does in August. A hazardous rating rarely lasts longer than 2-3 hours at the most.

Heavy snowfall is also hard to predict although it is typical to see moisture-laden storms from the Gulf Coast push westward into the Rockies in early Spring. Again, even the heaviest of snow storms will have mariginal effect on either I-15 or I-70 for very long.

But I am still curious about which sites you looked at that worried you. I just looked at the current report for all I-70 in Colorado (it is being reported as dry with some limited ice spots in the Eisenhower Tunnel). There is a winter watch for Vail Pass for tonight with a possible 12 inches of snow -- but the road is dry at the moment.

I also looked at I-15 through all of Utah -- and most of the roadway is dry.

Mark

[Donna]

Hi - I guess I must not be looking in the right place. I looked at a couple of the links on the board, mainly going by the Nat Weather Service one. Where are you looking that states specific highway conditions?

Thanks!

[Mark Sedenquist]

Donna,

OK. If you click on this link, you will go to the RTA Road Conditions page. You will see a number of links for different kinds of road and weather reports. If you click on the 4th link from the top (the one labeled: "Federal Road Traffic and Conditions Page") you will see an image map for all of the states. By clicking on the map you can load the web site for the individual DOT (department of transportation) for each state. From there, look for road/weather conditions links for the highways you will be traveling. Real time information is provided this way.

For instance, if you were to click on UT, it takes you to a page for Utah (click on the Continue link). The next page provides a link for "Winter Road Conditions" -- When you click on this link you will see a report for every major section of I-15 and I-70 in the state of Utah.

Another resource is provided by TravelForecast.com which lists 800 numbers and websites for road conditions in each state.

[Donna]

Got it. Thank you for your help! :)