From March 13th to 14th, Shaanxi Province experienced its first significant rainfall of the season. Roads in Xi'an became slippery, and visibility decreased, yet the city's transportation hubs operated smoothly. In the expressway command center, zonal warnings flashed clearly on screens, with real-time updates on drainage and waterlogging mitigation progress for each road section. Inside the rail transit dispatch center, commands automatically triggered by predefined meteorological thresholds had already been issued, ensuring trains continued to run stably through the wind and rain. This operational resilience demonstrates the practical outcomes of Xi'an's efforts in advancing the China Meteorological Administration's pilot program for "Promoting High-Quality Development of Transport Meteorology by Addressing Severe Weather Impacts."

The city's pilot exploration began as a critical initiative that required success. As a megacity with a permanent population exceeding 13 million, Xi'an faces complex challenges with the Qinling Mountains to its south, resulting in varied terrain and unpredictable weather. Particularly in winter, subtle changes in altitude along the northern foothills of Qinling can shift the rain-snow transition line, potentially leading to icy expressways and disrupted mountain pass travel. The primary objective of the pilot was to solve the problems of inaccurate measurement and imprecise forecasting.

The solution implemented involved constructing an integrated, multi-dimensional monitoring network to create a localized, intelligent core for early warnings. A dedicated task force ventured deep into the Qinling mountains, as well as bridges, tunnels, and slopes, conducting scientific surveys along the city's expressways to plan and establish 135 standardized transport meteorological observation stations. They performed ten specialized road surface data collections under different weather conditions on key routes like the Ring Expressway, creating unique thermal maps of the road surfaces. This research into the complex relationship between road surface temperature and meteorological factors has led to the initial development of a localized indicator database for six types of hazards, including icing, snow accumulation, and heavy fog.

Technological innovation formed another critical component. To address the Qinling terrain's influence on weather, the Xi'an Meteorological Bureau collaborated with local research institutions to develop integrated equipment for water vapor monitoring using the BeiDou/Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), alongside an intelligent spatiotemporal precipitation perception and forecasting/warning system. This system acts like a "smart atmospheric water vapor eye," accurately retrieving water vapor content in the atmosphere and integrating AI forecasting technology to achieve precise short-term nowcasting of rainfall (or snowfall) within the region. The bureau also applied artificial intelligence to key areas such as visibility monitoring with graded alerts and early warnings for low-temperature road icing. They built a model for fog identification and warning on expressways, enabling precise detection of fog formation and dissipation processes from vast datasets.

Ma Wei, Director of the Network Command Center at Xi'an Rail Transit Group, commented, "The early warning technology provided by the meteorological department offers crucial support for rail network command. Especially during severe weather like heavy rain and strong winds, the threshold-based alerts triggered automatically by the system are accurate and timely. This provides a solid foundation for scientifically formulating train operation measures, effectively ensuring the safety of network operations." By 2025, this system had already triggered strong wind warnings three times, leading to automatic adjustments of train schedules and precise speed restrictions, mitigating risks at their earliest stages.

The core lesson from the Xi'an pilot lies in using institutional innovation to build an action loop of "precision warning, precision notification, and precision coordination." The pilot facilitated the signing of a framework agreement for severe weather information sharing and coordinated support among multiple departments—including transport, public security, emergency management, fire services, and expressway operators—specifically for the Xi'an Ring Expressway. Building on this, an intelligent platform was innovatively created to achieve second-level interconnection and visual coordination between meteorological warnings and emergency commands from various departments. Once a meteorological warning enters the platform, it automatically matches and triggers instructions for traffic police control, snow removal on roads, and rail schedule adjustments, forming a cross-departmental command synergy.

Addressing the significantly different cooling and snowfall processes between the Qinling mountainous areas and the plains, Xi'an developed a zoned, graded, and categorized response model. Rail transit was divided into 10 emergency support zones, while expressways were finely categorized into urban, foothill, and plain sections, implementing differentiated three-level risk management. During the cross-year rain and snow event around New Year's Day 2026, this mechanism operated efficiently: meteorological departments issued early warnings, triggering immediate platform notifications; expressway management pre-positioned de-icing materials on high-risk Qinling sections and implemented dynamic controls, while enhancing traffic guidance on urban sections; rail transit pre-scheduled pilot vehicles on elevated lines and adjusted timetables. Multiple departments responded synchronously under unified command, shifting the focus from post-disaster reaction to pre-event prevention and precise in-event regulation.

After more than a year of exploration, the Xi'an pilot project has progressed from initial framework construction to a phase where results are becoming evident. The most direct benefits are seen in the dual improvement of safety and operational efficiency. During several regional low-temperature rain and snow events in 2025, the frequency and duration of weather-related closures on Xi'an's major expressways decreased significantly compared to the previous year. No major traffic accidents or long-distance congestion caused by severe weather occurred, and the safety foundation for rail transit operations was further strengthened.