Before hitting the highway, check conditions online

The only weather that is truly important for most people is the weather at their location.

With the recent onset of winter conditions the weather has become very important to most people because it greatly affects our ability to get from one place to another.

There are plenty of weather resources available on the web, including the one at the upper right hand corner of this page. They all help you predict what the weather is, or will be in your location.

What really matters to most people this time of year is if they will be able to drive through whatever mess Mother Nature dishes out.

There are several options available to help people determine the road conditions on the route they are taking.

In Ohio
http://www.buckeyetraffic.org/
Part of the Ohio Department of Transportation, the site uses several resources to outline current conditions at hundreds of points through out the state. Observations uploaded by employees include the current condition of roads. Washington County alone has about 50 such points. The system also uses sensors to not only display the conditions, but also the exact temperature at the location. In our area there are sensors in Marietta, Macksburg, Pleasant City, Woodsfield and McConnelsville.

The site also has a text-based version that would be well suited for use on cell phones.

Web cameras are available for metropolitan areas such as Columbus, allowing travelers to judge for them self how bad the roads actually are.

In West Virginia
Travelers in West Virginia have options as well. Several sites offer conditions in different formats.  The department of highway site at http://gis.wvdot.com/SRIC/index.html displays color-coded roads to explain the current conditions of the interstate and major highways in the state.

At http://www.transportation.wv.gov/HIGHWAYS/TRAFFIC/Pages/roadconditions.aspx#PrimarySecondaryRoutes travelers will find an easy to use text based version listing detail information for sections of highways all over the state.

Remember, a few clicks of the mouse before you hit the road can save you some major hassles on the highway.