Safety first

An academic from Aberdeen University has developed a computer-generated weather-forecast system aimed at helping local authorities improve road-gritting services during the winter months.

The RoadSafe system can provide council road maintenance teams with the up-to-date and accurate information they require regarding which roads need to be gritted in their area and when.

It is hoped that the system could be used to help prevent and reduce road traffic accidents caused by harsh weather conditions.

RoadSafe was developed by Aberdeen University PhD student Ross Turner, who worked in partnership with Banchory-based weather-forecasting organisation Aerospace and Marine International (AMI) to create the system using technology developed by the institution's Department of Computing Science.

Traditional weather forecasting is based on simulation models that produce weather information presented in the form of tables and graphs, which are then passed directly to a human forecaster to be analysed and drafted into a weather summary. 

The RoadSafe system takes these tables and graphs and creates a simple draft text summary for the forecaster, using a standard system of terminology to describe different weather conditions.