Winning at winter maintenance
Safer roads. Less salt. Lower costs. Meet the communities leading the way.
Winter maintenance means making tough calls in tough conditions, often with limited data and no room for error. The communities on this page found a better way to run their winter operations. From a township in Pennsylvania to a city on Lake Michigan, they're proving that accurate, road-level weather data can cut unnecessary costs, lower environmental impact, and keep roads safer for everyone.
Pennsylvania
Cranberry Township
“Before, if I saw sleet on my windshield, I’d send crews out to salt the routes. This time our state DOT had trucks on the road and we did not.”
Bob Howland
Manager of Streets and Fleet
Cranberry Township
We saved $300,000 by knowing when to stand down
When in doubt, send everyone out
Cranberry Township manages 140 miles of road in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The township had cameras and a paid forecast service, but on marginal nights, neither could tell them whether the road surface was actually freezing. Every unnecessary callout cost the township in labor, materials, and equipment wear.
What road cameras couldn't see
Wireless pavement sensors gave the township live measurements of road temperature and surface state. During a freezing rain event in February 2025, ice was forming on vehicles, but the sensors showed road temperatures above freezing. The team held the crews back, avoiding a costly, unnecessary callout.
$300,000 saved in two winters
Cranberry avoided 26 callouts and saved nearly $300,000 over two winters. Reliably predicting the timing of snow events also led to reduced salt use and improved work/life balance for managers and crews. They have since expanded from two GroundCast sensors to seven, covering all quadrants of the township.
Wisconsin
City of Oak Creek
"It was hard not to do it the old way. But we stuck with it, and it saved us, at a minimum, 80 tons of salt."
Tyler Buerger
Assistant Director of Public Works
City of Oak Creek
We saved 80 tons of salt in a single winter event
Unpredictable lakeside weather
Oak Creek sits on the western shore of Lake Michigan, where the lake makes accurate forecasting a constant challenge. The city's public works department must also balance road safety with the environmental impact of salt runoff into one of America's largest freshwater lakes.
The forecast said snow. The roads said no.
On January 9, 2024, the National Weather Service forecast 6–11 inches of snow. Xweather Horizon predicted rain and wet snow, with road sensors showing surfaces too warm for snow build-up. The team pre-treated key routes instead of salting and told staff to relax for the rest of the day.
Missouri
City of Independence
"Instead of bringing people in at midnight, we built our operations around Xweather Horizon and saved almost $10,000 in one 12-hour shift."
Zan McKinney
Operations Manager, Municipal Services
City of Independence
We stopped treating "just in case" and saved $10,000 overnight
The midnight call no one wants to make
Independence sits on the south bank of the Missouri River, where winters are cold, snowy, and windy. Without reliable road-level data, the toughest decisions come late at night: send crews out at midnight as a precaution, or wait and hope conditions hold. Getting it wrong in either direction means wasted money or unsafe roads.
Trusting the data to hold off
Frustrated with inaccurate weather forecasts, Independence started planning its operations around sensor-based road weather forecasts. During one winter event, road temperature data showed surfaces holding above freezing through the night. Instead of calling in the midnight shift, the team held back and monitored conditions.
$10,000 saved in 12 hours
Independence saved almost $10,000 in material and staff time in a single 12-hour shift, without compromising road safety. The city has since integrated Xweather Horizon with its traffic management and emergency response systems. Every crew deployment and treatment decision now runs through the platform.
How they made the right call
Every treatment plan starts with what's happening on your roads
We've spent 40 years forecasting road conditions for agencies like yours. That experience powers Xweather Horizon. The platform pulls live data from wireless road sensors, weather stations, and connected vehicles, and forecasts road surface conditions across your network up to 72 hours out. Xweather Horizon recommends the right plan for each route based on your treatment policies and logs every decision.
Start a free trial today
What's one saved callout worth to you? You'll have live surface data and local forecasts within minutes of signing up.
Included in your 30-day trial
A 72-hour road weather forecast for five locations on your network.
Road surface state, grip, temp, and snow thickness at each location.
Dashboard summary of current and future road conditions.
Alerts for frost, ice, snow, and sub-zero road temperatures.
Radar, temperature, wind, cloud cover, and snow depth map layers.
Access for an unlimited number of users from your team.
Our customer success team is on hand to help at any time.
