Center for Transportation Research and Education

About the research

Over the last several decades, Minnesota’s winters have gotten warmer. In fact, the winters have warmed significantly faster than the summers. Such a trend is forecasted to continue into the foreseeable future. It is possible that this warming trend has increased the length of time spent around the freezing point (32°F), thus also increasing the average number of freeze-thaw events. However, it is also possible that this warming trend has resulted in no change in the number of freeze-thaw events. The proposed research has two primary objectives: (1) to attempt to quantify the number of freeze-thaw events daily, monthly, and annually from historical temperature records, freeze gauges, and other data; and (2) to attempt to collect ground/pavement temperature and study its correlation with air temperature during freeze-thaw events. To achieve these objectives, a two-phase research approach has been developed.