Winter tire outlook estimates slippery conditions

A new forecast product estimating the need for winter tires has been added to the collection of autumn’s six week forecasts. In practice the winter tire outlook tells if there are possible slippery road conditions in sight in the upcoming six weeks.

Winter tire outlook draws a picture of the driving conditions on a weekly level and depicts how many slippery days are forecasted for each week. Aim is to help Finnish citizens to prepare themselves for the possible slippery driving conditions and for picking up the appropriate time to change the winter tires.

Slippery days are defined as days during which the daily mean temperature sinks below zero or during which there is a situation when it first rains and afterwards the temperature goes under zero celsius degrees.

Winter tire outlook doesn’t take into account freezing rain, slippery conditions caused by frost or factors related to road maintenance, such as salting or snowploughing. As the forecast is presented on a weekly level it also doesn’t consider on which exact days of the slippery conditions take place or whether the conditions are slippery for just short period of time or throughout the day.

Six week forecasts support the preparedness of the citizens

Finnish Transport Safety Agency requires the cars to be geared with winter tires latest in the beginning of December. In some years wintery road conditions take Finns by surprise much before this.

Winter tire outlook helps to foresee, if there are periods in the coming weeks when the road conditions might get slippery and potentially dangerous. Forecasts can also be used to estimate, whether this period is just a short one or do the weather conditions stay slippery for several weeks.

“Winter tire outlook gives an overview of the weather conditions only on a weekly level.  If you are interested in the driving conditions of the next few days, it is more convenient to follow the official weather forecasts and warnings of the Finnish Meteorological Institute”, suggest the researchers developing the CLIPS six week forecasts.

Winter tire outlook is available for the pilot users – unfortunately only in Finnish! If you are fluent in Finnish though, welcome along!