The Pathfinder Project: Road Weather Collaboration and Successes from the First Two Seasons of Pathfinder in the State of Minnesota

Pathfinder formalizes collaboration among the National Weather Service, state departments of transportation, and their private weather provider (if applicable). The goal of the project is to provide clear and consistent road weather messaging to the public, making for safer roadways and prepared travelers when high-impact weather strikes. Several states have initiated the Pathfinder Project since it became a pilot project in 2014 under the direction of The Federal Highway Administration. The Pathfinder Implementation Plan lays out a multi-step process on setting up the project in any state, with guidance on how and when collaboration should occur. The state of Minnesota began the project at the onset of the winter of 2017-2018 and over the past 2 winter seasons utilized collaborative tools and newfound relationships to enhance messaging to the public during adverse winter weather events. This included the creation of a new NWSChat room dedicated to Pathfinder collaboration, which was frequently used prior to high-impact winter weather events. In addition, MNDOT held multiple event-driven internal webinars for the purpose of collaborating on messaging and potential hazards expected. One of the main impacts Pathfinder has had internally was to bring the right people together from the entities involved to build and enhance relationships across the road weather enterprise.