Virginia Snow Plow Tracker and Road Conditions

Q: Where can I see where the plows are in Virginia?

VDOT calls it VDOT Plows, and it runs at https://plows.vdot.virginia.gov/. VDOT describes it this way: "The VDOT Plows website monitors the location of more than 7,000 snowplows and is activated during widespread snow events where greater than 2 inches of snow accumulates."

Q: What is 511 Virginia?

511 Virginia is Virginia Department of Transportation's own travel information service. 511 Virginia carries traffic cameras, a phone app called 511 app and a phone line at 511. VDOT describes it this way: "Get current road conditions. Visit 511.vdot.virginia.gov, download the 511 app or call 511."

Q: How do I report a road problem in Virginia?

VDOT takes reports at https://my.vdot.virginia.gov/. The travel information line is 511.

Trucks on the map

What the state publishes

Live truck positions

511 Virginia

The map

VDOT, Virginia Department of Transportation

4

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 Virginia

Trucks on the map

VDOT publishes where its plows are and when a plow last came past on 511 Virginia.

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: VDOT Plows
Where it lives: 511 Virginia
Shows a last pass: Yes. The layer records when a truck was last down a road, not only where one is now.
Trucks in the fleet: 7,000
How often it updates: VDOT says the map is switched on for widespread storms where more than two inches accumulate, and that a breadcrumb trail being piloted in the Northern Virginia District shows where a truck has travelled over the last six hours.
By phone: 511

Open VDOT Plows

VDOT describes it in its own words, from Snow Plow Tracking & Road Conditions, Virginia Department of Transportation, read September 23, 2026.

The VDOT Plows website monitors the location of more than 7,000 snowplows and is activated during widespread snow events where greater than 2 inches of snow accumulates.

Snow Plow Tracking & Road Conditions, Virginia Department of Transportation, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The map

What 511 Virginia shows

511 Virginia carries traffic cameras, a phone app called 511 app and a phone line at 511. VDOT describes it this way: "Get current road conditions. Visit 511.vdot.virginia.gov, download the 511 app or call 511."

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.

Virginia is one of the few southern states that shows you the trucks themselves: VDOT switches on plows.vdot.virginia.gov during storms of more than two inches and puts over 7,000 snowplows on the map, while 511 Virginia carries the road condition overlay in four steps from Minor to Closed.

The map: 511 Virginia
Cameras: Roadside cameras
Phone app: 511 app
Phone line: 511

511 Virginia, Virginia Department of Transportation

Get current road conditions. Visit 511.vdot.virginia.gov, download the 511 app or call 511.

Snow Plow Tracking & Road Conditions, Virginia Department of Transportation, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The words

What Virginia calls each state of a road

VDOT runs 4 steps on 511 Virginia, from Minor to Closed. VDOT publishes a definition beside them.

These are Virginia’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.

VDOT’s own labels, in the order VDOT lists them. The second column is the state’s own definition.
What the map says	What VDOT says it means
Minor	Advisory; Potential for icy patches or snow on roadway; Drivable with caution.
Moderate	Snow or ice covering a major portion of the roadway; Drivable with caution.
Severe	Significant accumulation of snow or ice partially blocking the roadway; Conditions are hazardous.
Closed	Roadway is closed; Impassable.

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

When a road shuts

Who closes a road in Virginia

VDOT marks a road Closed on 511 Virginia, which its own legend defines as impassable; the same legend notes road conditions are only drawn on state roads recently hit by adverse weather.

Road Conditions are only displayed for state roads currently or recently impacted by adverse weather. If no overlay is displayed, the last reported condition of the road was good.

Snow Plow Tracking & Road Conditions, Virginia Department of Transportation, 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

Virginia snow plow tracker questions

Does Virginia have a snow plow tracker?

Where can I see where the plows are in Virginia?

What is 511 Virginia?

What do the road condition colours mean in Virginia?

Who closes a road in Virginia?

How do I report a road problem in Virginia?

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

Virginia studded tire datesWhen studs are legal on Virginia 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.

Virginia read September 23, 2026 from Snow Plow Tracking & Road Conditions, Virginia Department of Transportation, linked above. Departments replace these services between seasons and a layer that ran last winter may not run this one, so VDOT’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.