A dedicated weather information and weather warning system have been developed and implemented by ÖBB, Austria’s national rail service. Preparative work included the installation of additional weather stations for better spatial coverage, the development of regional meteorological models, GIS-based overlay of railway tracks and meteorological data as well as GIS-based delineation of flood risk.
The InfraWeather online portal gives access to general weather information, forecasts as well as weather warnings. A map shown on the user interface gives an overview of the Austrian railroad system with the most important weather information. With the new forecast models and radar techniques, weather extremes can be forecasted on a scale of 10 km, partly even lower. This is possible due to the definition of natural areas, as units with similar natural conditions. These are meteorological divides, crests, valleys, etc.
The forecast of floods integrates the water level of the rivers and the meteorological data so that the warnings can be sent 12 hours in advance. The snowfall forecast includes the amount of snowfall in the next 24 to 72 hours for each warning point. InfraWeather has a dedicated operational warning service, which provides also real-time severe weather warnings. Extreme weather events covered by the warning system are thunderstorms, flood events, and heavy snowfall. The forecast of disastrous thunderstorms is provided by using ‘nowcasting’ techniques, where the track of thunderstorms can be forecasted 20 - 60 minutes in advance.