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Maryland puts its plows on the map

Maryland Snow Plow Tracker and Road Conditions

Maryland puts its winter operations trucks on a public map called S.T.O.R.M., showing where state and contractor vehicles are moving right now, alongside county level road conditions and snow emergency plans on Maryland 511.

Trucks on the map
What the state publishes
Live truck positions
Maryland 511
The map
MDOT SHA, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration
6
Words on the map
each one defined by the state
Yes
Roadside cameras
on the same map, pointed at the road itself
The answer

Where the plows are in Maryland

Trucks on the map

MDOT SHA publishes where its plows are on Maryland 511.

A reader can see which roads have a truck on them right now. Whether one has already been past is a separate question the layer may or may not answer.

What the state calls it
S.T.O.R.M. (Statewide Transportation Operations Response Map)
Where it lives
Maryland 511
How often it updates
SHA says the map updates automatically every 30 seconds and displays the last 30 minutes of vehicle activity, and that it shows only winter operations vehicles travelling faster than 10 mph.
By phone
511

Open S.T.O.R.M. (Statewide Transportation Operations Response Map)

MDOT SHA describes it in its own words, from STORM (Statewide Transportation Operations Response Map) Frequently Asked Questions, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, read September 23, 2026.

STORM is a mobile and desktop friendly platform enabling the public to see the location of SHA’s winter operations fleet of vehicles.
STORM (Statewide Transportation Operations Response Map) Frequently Asked Questions, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
The map

What Maryland 511 shows

Maryland 511 carries traffic cameras and a phone line at 511. MDOT SHA describes it this way: "CHART Web is Maryland's official 511 Traveler Information service. Maryland 511 provides travelers with reliable, current traffic and road closure information, as well as weather related traffic events and conditions."

Conditions on any state map are reported rather than measured. A plow operator or a trooper enters what they saw, and the map carries it until somebody enters something else, so a colour is a description of the road a while ago on the stretch the person was looking at.

Maryland puts its winter operations trucks on a public map called S.T.O.R.M., showing where state and contractor vehicles are moving right now, alongside county level road conditions and snow emergency plans on Maryland 511.

The map
Maryland 511
Cameras
Roadside cameras
Phone line
511

Maryland 511, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration

CHART Web is Maryland's official 511 Traveler Information service. Maryland 511 provides travelers with reliable, current traffic and road closure information, as well as weather related traffic events and conditions.
CHART - Coordinated Highways Action Response Team, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
The words

What Maryland calls each state of a road

MDOT SHA runs 6 steps on Maryland 511, from Dry to Closed. MDOT SHA publishes a definition beside them.

These are Maryland’s words and they stop at the state line. There is no national scale: the 33 states that publish a legend use 166 different labels between them, and only 17 publish what their own labels mean. A phrase that means one thing here means something else, or nothing, one state over.

MDOT SHA’s own labels, in the order MDOT SHA lists them. The second column is the state’s own definition.
What the map saysWhat MDOT SHA says it means
DryDry or Wet - designated in Green
WetDry or Wet - designated in Green
Isolated CoverageIsolated Coverage or Overall Coverage - designated in Yellow
Overall CoverageIsolated Coverage or Overall Coverage - designated in Yellow
Restricted LanesRestricted Lanes or Closed - designated in Red
ClosedRestricted Lanes or Closed - designated in Red

Read from MDOT SHA’s own legend on September 23, 2026.

When a road shuts

Who closes a road in Maryland

The Maryland State Police declare snow emergencies, with input from the State Highway Administration, and a Snow Emergency Plan is put into effect county by county with individual routes able to be excepted; Maryland 511 lists the counties currently under one and the plans lifted in the last 24 hours.

The Maryland State Police (MSP) declares snow emergencies with input from MD State Highway Administration. Once a snow emergency is declared, the law requires certain precautions.
CHART - Coordinated Highways Action Response Team, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A closure is a different thing from a bad condition, and it is the one entry on the map that carries the force of law behind it. Driving past a closure device is an offence in most states and a rescue bill in several. The map is where the closure is published, and the state also takes reports of conditions from the public.

A red and white striped gate padlocked shut across a two lane forest highway with a ROAD CLOSED sign at its centre, photographed at road level along the wet double yellow line
A seasonal gate shut across a state highway, with no snow on the ground yet. Closures like this one go on by the calendar rather than by the storm, and a driver who checks the map in November finds the road already gone. That is the quietest and most useful thing these maps do, and it happens weeks before anybody looks for a plow. “The gates are closed (49097728041)”, Oregon Department of Transportation, CC BY 2.0

Maryland snow plow tracker questions

A plow truck seen from behind in heavy snowfall casting a wide plume of snow off the left shoulder of an interstate, with one dark treated lane running away to the right
The same event from behind: the truck throwing its wing load onto the shoulder, and beside it the dark strip of lane it has already been down. That contrast between the wet black lane and the white one is the physical thing a road map is reporting when it changes a segment from snow covered to wet, and it is why the colour on the map can be right and the road can still be slick. “Snowplow on Interstate 5 in Everett, Washington”, SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0

Plow trackers in other states

Maryland studded tire datesWhen studs are legal on Maryland roads, and the penalty when they are not.Mountain pass conditionsThe passes that close, and what each state posts when they do.Studded tire laws by stateThe dates studs are legal, state by state.Lake effect snowWhere the bands set up and what they do to a commute.Plow trackers in every stateWhich states show the trucks, which show only the roads, and what their legends say.

Maryland read September 23, 2026 from CHART - Coordinated Highways Action Response Team, Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, linked above. Departments replace these services between seasons and a layer that ran last winter may not run this one, so MDOT SHA’s own page is the one that governs. Conditions shown on it are reported by people and lag the road. Every state is on the snow plow tracker hub.