NEW HOPE, PA. – The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) recently formalized a long-standing practice of providing weather data to the National Weather Service (NWS).
For more than two decades, Commission personnel stationed at three middle-Delaware River bridges have collected respective daily precipitation readings (rainfall and snowfall), and maximum/minimum temperatures and relayed the resulting information to the NWS’s forecast office in Mount Holly, N.J.
This practice, however, was never memorialized or documented between the DRJTBC and the NWS. That oversight was rectified on June 30 when the Commission entered into a formal cooperative agreement with the NWS.
The agreement applies to the continuing weather-data-collection activities of Commission personnel stationed at the Easton-Phillipsburg Toll Bridge, Riegelsville Toll-Supported Bridge, and the Riverton-Belvidere Toll-Supported Bridge. The employees record daily readings using NWS-provided equipment: an eight-inch standard rain gauge, a snow-measuring board, a snow-measuring stick, a maximum/minimum temperature sensor, and a Nimbus Temperature Display Unit. The data are then sent to NWS forecasters via an online form or by telephone.
The readings are used for a variety of purposes. Daily precipitation readings are used by the Mid Atlantic River Forecast Center, which monitors for potential flooding and issues river-condition forecasts for recreationists and others. The readings also become part of the NWS historical record, which date back to the 1980s for Riverton-Belvidere and Riegelsville, and 1994 for Easton-Phillipsburg. Historical records are used for research, insurance claims, and emergency declarations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The newly formalized NWS-DRJTBC agreement is unrelated to an 18-year-old river-level-tracking arrangement the Commission has with the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) New Jersey Water Science Center. Under that arrangement, USGS operates and maintains electronic river-reading devices at five bridges while the Commission is responsible for covering the costs of installation, telecommunications and power. The five bridges are:
- Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22) Toll Bridge
- Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Toll-Supported Bridge
- Centre Bridge-Stockton Toll-Supported Bridge
- New Hope-Lambertville Toll-Supported Bridge
- Washington Crossing Toll-Supported Bridge.
The devices use radar to measure the river’s height every 15 minutes. The data is then transmitted by satellite every hour to the National Weather Service, which uses the information for its Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service. The readings help meteorologists and hydrologists monitor river levels and assists communities with flood-warning and response activities. Current conditions and outlooks can be accessed at nj.usgs.gov and through water.noaa.gov.
