BE PREPARED BY Getting Good Weather Reports! Sources for them:

• Weather Band Radio - either buy one or buy a CB with it built in.  Your truck’s AM/FM radio may have a weather band.

• Truck Stop TV  - in the winter, many truckstops have a television in the restaurant and/or driver’s lounge with nationwide weather updates 24 hours a day.

• Internet  - There are many, many sites devoted to weather.

• Calling the weather line for a particular state  - These phone numbers can be found in your Motor Carrier’s Atlas as well as on the State Contact List in this book..  If you can’t find a phone number that will give you the information you’re looking for, you can also try the Highway Patrol for that state.

• Calling home - Ask your family to watch the Weather Channel or at least tune in to the news.  You may want to mention to them that you’re more interested in the national fronts than anything else. 

• CB radio   Be careful about believing everything you hear on the CB because you’ll get a great deal of conflicting information.  Ask several drivers for weather reports for the same area.

You’ll be more interested in national weather fronts/trends and moving storm systems than local weather reports.  If you have a choice of 2 routes somewhere, the weather may be the deciding factor over which route you take.  You may not necessarily care what the weather in a certain region is doing right now – you will care about what it is expected to do when you’ll be there!

BE PREPARED BY Knowing How to Recognize A Potentially Dangerous Road Condition / Situation

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the road is freezing up.  It may be raining, snowing, sleeting, etc but the temperature is hovering around 32 and you’re just not sure if you’re dealing with wet road or an icy one. 

• Watch For Spray from other vehicles’ tires.  If SPRAY is coming up, chances are very good it is not freezing.  (But that doesn’t mean it can’t start.)  Look for spray coming up from your own tires, too.  It’s a reassuring thing to see!!

• Watch Other Vehicles  Are they slip-sliding and fishtailing?  Are you starting to see cars in the ditch?  Are you seeing trucks rolled over in the ditch or on the on/off ramps?  These are strong indicators that the road is likely to be slicker than it appears.

• Ice build-up on windshield, where wipers don’t cover indicates it is freezing.

• Ice build up on CB antennas makes them bounce back and forth very fast.

• Black Ice is scary stuff because it is so difficult to see.  Black Ice can accumulate anywhere but be especially careful after the sun goes down after a relatively warm day.  When the temperature drops below freezing after having a fair amount of melt-off during the day, new icy patches will form.

At the beginning of the winter, even around 32 degrees, it is not as likely that roadways will start to freeze over as soon as there’s precipitation.  This is because the ground is still warm from the summer.  As the winter progresses, the ground becomes colder and colder and will freeze up faster when precipitation falls.