Past IEM Features tagged: roads
2019 Road Conditions
13 Feb 2019 05:33 AMThe featured map displays the percentage of time so far this calendar year that a given Iowa DOT reported road segment was in non-seasonable condition. The east/west contrast over the state is remarkable with portions of east central Iowa over 30% while portions of west central Iowa are below 5%. The eastern half of the state has seen more than its fair share of snowfall this winter season and the most recent round blew around a bunch Tuesday afternoon making for a large portion of the area to be designated with a "Travel Advisory".
Voting:
Good: 16
Bad: 0
Tags: roads
Limited Poor Travel Conditions
22 Dec 2017 05:34 AMThe featured map displays the total amount of time that a DOT reported road segment was in an non-seasonable condition, meaning a condition that was neither dry nor wet from rain, so far this winter season. Difficult winter weather driving has been rare so far, with the conditions on Thursday the most widespread seen so far. The lack of snow will be disappointing for those wanting a White Christmas, but will help those needing to travel over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house.
Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 1
Abstain: 1
Tags: roads
Mostly Normal
11 Feb 2015 07:35 AMWhile light freezing rain over northern Iowa on Tuesday created some travel issues, the rest of the state enjoyed another winter day this season without much travel concern on Iowa's primary roads. The featured map displays the frequency that a given road segment was in a non-normal (non-dry) state so far this year. The percentages shown on this map are generally less than 30%.
Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 5
Abstain: 6
Tags: roads
Equinox and Driving
22 Sep 2014 05:44 AMThe fall equinox is today, which means the entire globe gets roughly 12 hours of daylight. This is also a time of year that there are concerns about driving during sunrise and sunset. The reason being the azimuth at which the sun rises and sets is due east and west. This happens to be a main orientation of many roads in the state as shown by the featured chart. The chart shows an analysis of road orientation as computed by taking each of the road segments in a GIS coverage of roads and then computing their respective orientations. Each segment is weighted by its length to produce the chart. Being a flat state certainly allows a vast majority of the roads to be oriented N-S and E-W.
Voting:
Good: 13
Bad: 7
Abstain: 5
Tags: equinox roads
Non-Normal Roads
07 Feb 2014 05:42 AMThe parade of snow producing storms and blowing snow conditions have made travel a bit difficult in Iowa this winter season. The featured map displays the frequency this year that a road segment was reported to be in a non-normal condition. The highest frequencies are shown in the Dubuque area with much lower values in western Iowa. The next winter storm system arrives tonight and is expected to dump a few inches of snow on the state for Saturday. Temperatures look to remain very cold for the next week.
Voting:
Good: 74
Bad: 18
Abstain: 8
Tags: roads
Help for Road Conditions
04 Feb 2013 05:41 AMOur recent stretch of winter weather has seen numerous light snowfall events. A big help for clearing off the primary roads in the state is the sun. The featured chart presents a simple average of afternoon pavement surface temperature near Marshalltown and the frequency of having a sub freezing temperature. Solar declination increases each day in the spring, which makes for more energy entering the pavement and warmer temperatures. In February, it becomes increasingly less likely to have freezing temperatures, which means any frozen water on the surface will quickly melt.
Voting:
Good: 23
Bad: 7
Tags: roads
New Normal
09 Feb 2010 04:56 AMThe featured map displays the percentage of time a road segment was reported to be in non-normal condition since the first of December. The orange lines indicate that roughly 40 to 50 percent of the time, the road has required some sort of work by road crews who have put in very long hours this winter. Road conditions will deteriorate today thanks to a strong northwest wind expected to blow the fluffy snow from these past two days around.
Voting:
Good: 22
Bad: 10
Tags: dec09 jan10 roads
A little snow causes a lot of trouble
26 Jan 2010 05:13 AMIt did not take very much snow to mostly shut the state down yesterday and into this morning. Thanks to a very strong wind and an ice covered landscape, what snow that did fall quickly went horizontal creating white out conditions. The featured chart looks at a comparison of estimated Iowa mean wind speed, RADAR reflectivity coverage, and percentage of roads either closed or with travel advisories. Winds are still strong this morning, but should improve allowing snow plows to clear out many of the roads drifted shut.
Voting:
Good: 22
Bad: 7
Tags: roads
Difficult December for travel
29 Dec 2008 06:19 AMThe featured map is a summary of the amount of time a road segment was in a condition other than normal or wet for the month of December. This map would indicate that the longest travel headaches have occured over Northeast Iowa with Southwest Iowa experiencing the least amount of winter weather travel. The good news is that this week looks to be mostly dry with fast moving storm systems passing to our north.
Voting:
Good: 31
Bad: 6
Tags: dec08 roads
Difficult driving month
19 Feb 2008 07:12 AMThe featured chart is a histogram of reported road conditions for Interstate 80 just west of Iowa City for February. Half of the month has seen non ideal driving conditions with around 12% of the time in a "Travel not advised" condition. Travel is still not advised this morning as wind continues to blow snow across the roads.
Voting:
Good: 20
Bad: 3
Tags: roads feb08
Shut down
02 Mar 2007 07:38 AMThe western and northern half of Iowa is mostly shut down this Friday due to heavy snowfall and very strong northwest winds making travel all but impossible. The featured image is of road conditions over Iowa showing many parts of the interstate system closed and travel not advised everywhere else. Snowfall totals are approaching 18 inches over Northwest Iowa. Finally a snow storm like those we remember as a kid.
Voting:
Good: 58
Bad: 22
Tags: roads