West Virginia Parkways Authority Earns StormReady Designation

Left to right: WV Parkways Authority Executive Director Jeffrey Miller, Highway Production Manager Andy Hambrick, Director of Maintenance Leslie Ball, I.T. Communications and Security Kelsey Jenkins, and NWS Charleston Warning Coordination Meteorologist Tony Edwards

The West Virginia Parkways Authority was declared StormReady during the Parkways Authority Board Meeting held on January 26, 2023 at the Tamarack Conference Center.

The StormReady program is designed to help protect citizens from the dangers of all types of severe weather by arming America's communities with the communication and safety skills needed to save lives and property before, during and after a hazardous weather event.

Weather conditions can vary widely due to the unique topography across the West Virginia Turnpike from Charleston to Bluefield. In order to be able to better monitor the variable weather conditions, Parkways officials installed weather stations at the maintenance garages located in Chelyan, Standard, Beckley, Ghent and Princeton. These weather stations report elements such as temperature, rainfall and wind speed and direction, in real-time. This data assists snow and ice control crews and the meteorologists monitoring and forecasting the weather along the Turnpike.

In addition to the improved weather condition monitoring, information on winter weather forecasting and communication was integrated into the Fall Snow and Ice Control training and Incident Management workshops. These events helped inform snow and ice control crews and Turnpike Emergency Response agencies about the winter outlook and how to stay informed of weather forecasts and changeable weather conditions.

“The overarching goals of the StormReady designation are that the people involved are more educated on weather safety, have increased redundancy in their communication systems so warnings of potentially hazardous weather aren’t missed, and promote the importance of weather readiness and preparedness,” said Tony Edwards, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service forecast office in Charleston. “The West Virginia Parkways Authority went above and beyond to meet these goals and should be commended for their proactiveness.”

The nationwide community preparedness program, StormReady, founded in 1999, is a grassroots approach to preparing for natural hazards. Today, over 3,200 U.S. communities, including 22 in West Virginia, are better prepared for severe weather through the StormReady program.

For more information about StormReady, and other National Weather Service weather safety programs, please visit www.weather.gov/rlx/partnerships.