Abstract
This paper presents our first experience with the application of the METRo model, which forecasts road surface temperature and road conditions (e.g., wet or dry surface, ice) in the Czech Republic. In our version, the model uses online measurements from road weather stations (RWS) in the Czech Republic and weather forecasts from ALADIN, the operational numerical weather prediction NWP model of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. The METRo model was quasi-operationally tested during the winter season (November 2012–February 2013) using data from 25 RWS. We compared three model runs with an emphasis on road surface temperature. The first run used the original model and served as a reference. The second run applied model output statistics (MOS) to ALADIN forecasts of temperature and humidity at 2m above the ground, which are required by METRo. The third run applied METRo in a nowcasting mode by starting the model every hour and using new measurements available from the RWS. The results indicated that MOS improved the accuracy of the temperature and humidity at 2m but had little impact on the forecasted road surface temperature. However, the nowcasting scheme significantly improved the accuracy of the forecasts for the initial 3 to 4h. The evaluation of the METRo results suggests that the radiation flux forecast is crucial for an accurate road surface temperature forecast.
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