Talkin Winter Ops
Listen in on conversations with experts in the field of road weather and winter road maintenance as they explain how their work helps make roads safer and passable during winter storm events.
Episodes
157 episodes
Episode 157: AMS Road Weather and Technology - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by Dr. Brittany Welsh of the National Center For Atmospheric Research and Chair of the AMS Road Weather and Technology Committee. Check out their work products and get more information abo...
Episode 156: TRB WINTER MAINTENANCE - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by Anna Arvidsson Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute and features the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Standing Technical Committee on Winter Maintenance and Response to Weather...
Episode 155: WINTER SERVICE TC - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by Peter Nutz, City of Vienna Austria and features the World Road Association’s Winter Service Technical Committee. Check out their work products and get more information about PIARC’s Win...
Episode 154: MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS TWG - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by Jed Falgren Minnesota DOT and features the Maintenance Operations Technical Working Group of AASHTOs Maintenance Committee. One of the 5 Technical Working Groups of this Committee, Maintenance Oper...
Episode 153: MAINTENANCE DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by Dave Huft South Dakota DOT and Ben Hersey DTN and features the Maintenance Decision Support System Pool Fund Study. This organization is advancing winter maintenance decision support through ...
Episode 152: CLEAR ROADS - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by Danny Varilek South Dakota DOT and features the Clear Roads Pool Fund Study. Clear Roads’ work focus is on all things winter maintenance and includes management of the Qualified Product List (QPL) ...
Episode 151: AURORA - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by James Roath Michigan DOT and features the Aurora Pool Fund Study. Aurora's work focus is on road weather, instrumentation, and forecasting among other related activities. Check out thei...
Episode 150: APWA - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by Matt Morreim City of Shorewood, Minnesota and features the American Public Works Association (APWA) Winter Maintenance Subcommittee. The Winter Maintenance Subcommittee’s mission is to promote the ...
Episode 149: AASHTO WINTER WEATHER MANAGEMENT TSP - 2026 National Briefing
This National Briefing segment is presented by Jed Falgren Minnesota DOT and features AASHTO’s Winter Weather Management Technical Service Program. The Winter Weather Management’s work focus is on on the identification, promotion, and collabora...
Episode 148: INTRODUCTION to the 2026 National Briefing
Welcome to the 2026 National Winter Maintenance and Road Weather Briefing series! Each year, this special event brings together organizations from across the winter maintenance, road weather, and highway operations community to share their late...
Episode 147: The Georgia DOT Snow School
No matter where you live or where you operate, people have come to expect that they can get where they need to go, whenever they need to go. And while snow and ice may be more common up north, winter weather isn't just a northern problem.
Episode 146: First storm of the season
Every agency has gone through it. Perfect planning for winter, perfect preparation for that first storm, then mother nature sends a curve ball, all the planets line up and all the little things add up to a big thing. That’s what hap...
Episode 145: The winter app that isn't an app
On this episode were going to showcase the work of a couple of innovative maintenance professionals long time friend and listener, Phillip Anderle turned me on to at the last APWA Western Snow and Ice Conference. These two guys created a ...
Episode 144: Communicate, Coordinate, Cooperate - the I-80 Corridor Coalition
Born out of a desire to improve winter operations across state lines the Interstate 80 Corridor Coalition has grown into the second longest corridor coalition extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Likewise, the operational focus has...
Episode 143: Winter readiness, get your house in order
While it's important to have stockpiles full, equipment repaired and ready, and staff training and assignments set, it's important to have your home weather ready as well. After all, when you're out there battling the weather, there's pea...
Bonus Episode 142: Pacific Northwest Snowfighters 2026
The Pacific Northwest Snowfighters Association will be holding their biannual conference for winter maintenance professionals and practitioners May 2026 in Spokane, Washington. This best in the west winter operations conference is a perfe...
Episode 141: Maintenance-If you think it's not important, just stop doing it
From that moment the very first engineering project was completed the age of maintenance began. While the initial delivery of the public work carries a lot of fanfare nothing is more important than keeping it functional and in service.&nb...
Episode 140: Salt is about the speed
In this episode we’re revisiting an earlier episode of Talkin Winter Ops that you may have missed. In this episode we visit with Dr. Scott Koefod, inorganic chemist, about just how salt works when used as part of a winter maintenance stra...
Episode 139: Don't give your spouse the leftovers
Winter maintenance is more than work plans, budgets, disasters and recovery. Your family plays a huge role in your public works career and public service often demands family sacrifice during times of crisis. Lots of times the two w...
Episode 138: Designed for snowplows
Developing an infrastructure project is series of compromises and tradeoffs and so often maintenance and operations considerations end up on the cutting room floor. Unfortunately, those decisions have implications that agencies have to li...
Episode 137: Innovation, the little ones are the big ones
A hundred and fifty years ago road departments leaned on the farmers next to the road to help maintain it and often times paid them to do so. As time marched on and road departments became DOTs with dedicated maintenance workers and tools...
Episode 136: Keep snow off the road with Snow Fence, Minnesota style
The easiest snow flake to remove from the roadway is the one that never lands on it. Seems obvious but how to make that happen? On this episode we’re Talkin Winter Ops with Dan Gullickson, Minnesota DOT supervisor of their Blowing S...
Episode 135: 2025 National Briefing - No Boundaries
This briefing features the No Boundaries Pool Fund Study. The No Boundaries pooled fund project is a community of practice of state DOT maintenance and operations professionals who share innovative maintenance technologies and practices t...
Episode 134: 2025 National Briefing - Professional Snowfighters Association
This briefing features the Professional Snowfighters Association a North American based non-profit professional association dedicated to creating a community of practice, based upon adherence to sound science as it seeks to improve knowledge an...
Episode 133: 2025 National Briefing - AMS
This briefing features the work of the American Meteorological Societies Committee on Road Weather and Technology. Focusing on advances weather science and technologies to fashion solutions to advance mobility during winter events the com...
