I live in the Cleveland-Akron area of Ohio. I-71 runs diagonally NE to SW, Cleveland to Columbus to Cincinnati (or vice versa).
Weather fronts very frequently parallel I-71. I’m watching the storm front heading our way tonight. Go to weather.com and enter 44691 as the ZIP code, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Is this just a coincidence, or could the topography that influences road placement also influence weather patterns (or vice versa)?
In your specific case I think it is just coincidental. The road happens to run roughly north/south and the fronts lie that way as well. You can get local weather patterns where a mountain range will cause a build-up of wet cloudy weather on the windward side. The same mountain range will have an effect on road placement, but that’s not what’s happening in your example.
The only topographic feature in Northeast Ohio that has a major effect on the weather is Lake Erie. The beach ridges play a very minor role in shaping microclimactic zones that are considered well-suited for horticulture and viticulture.
The thunder last night seemed to be coming from the east, which was very peculiar. I’m just up the 77-road a piece from freckafree. Our weather always comes from the west, almost always northwest.