Her in Minnesota I have noticed “roadside” weather stations in a number of different places. By “roadside weather station” I mean a small tower with an antenna at the top with what appears to be an anemometer, rain gauge, barometer housing, etc. They are located on the far side of the ditch within the roads right of way. I have seen them along both State and Interstate highways here, typically no closer than say 70 to 100 miles.
Does anyone know what these are for?
I have postulated either part of a road/travel conditions reporting system, or part of a larger weather monitoring system and the locations are convenient.
I know what you’re talking about, the only one I can think of in my area is on I-77 in VA, just north of the NC border. The highway there is coming down a big mountain, it gets pretty foggy and windy there (there was a huge pileup there five or ten years ago during a particulary foggy time). The location of this one leads me to believe that at least a big part of the reason for these is to monitor the weather in particularly troublesome areas of the highway.
Cabbage
I agree that is a possible explanation, and was one of my early assumptions. As the first one I saw here was along I-35 between Minneapolis and Moose Lake and there have been some pretty lousy road conditions on this stretch in winters past, and some large pile-ups.
The other two I have noticed are along State Highway 65 between Minneapolis and Goodland (approx. a 150 mile stretch). This section of highway in my experience has never been subject to irregular or out of the ordinary road conditions and there have never been any large pile-ups along this stretch to the best of my recollection. This leads me to believe they are not strictly safety related.
Thanks for your response; I was assuming that these were something particular to Minnesota (I haven’t been out of the state in a couple of years). No I’m not on probation. Now it begs the further question, is this a Federal program or a State program?
As a matter of fact, I drove by the weather station I mentioned earlier this evening, and made a point to pay attention. I couldn’t very well look and see what all they had for equipment there, but there was a sign saying “VDOT (Virginia Dept. of Transp.) Weather Warning System Ahead” (or something to that effect). So it appears that, in this case, it is specifically to monitor the potentially bad weather in that area, and is a state program rather than federal. Of course, I wouldn’t necessarily expect the same to hold true for others throughout the country, but at least it’s pretty clear in this particular case.
Interesting. Those I have seen here carry no signage (at least nothing readable as you pass by).
Perhaps the next time I am traveling in the vicinity of one I will have to stop and check it out.