Thursday’s unseasonably warm temperatures certainly won’t reflect the winter season, but the Ohio Department of Transportation is already deep into its preparations for potentially snowy weather in the coming months.

Those preparations include making sure each of the department’s snow plows and the 3,000 snowplow drivers are ready for the snow-fighting season.

While the Miami Valley has seen snow as early as mid-October, the average first measurable snow is late November, according to Storm Center 7 Meteorologist Rich Wirdzek. However, the first real accumlating snow arrives on average in early December, which is when plows would be more adpt to be used, Wirdzek said.

In 2012 ODOT is planning additional safety measures for when the heavy snow does fall, as they work to prevent rear-end crashes due to ice and snow, by installing new green and white strobe lights to the existing amber lights on snowplows.

The green lights have proven in studies to be more easily detected by the human eye than other colors, according to ODOT.

Ohio will be the first state in the nation to use the green strobe lights, and it will be one of the first in the country to use a combination of colors, ODOT said.

The department hopes the new additions to equipment will create better visibility and lead to safer roads during adverse weather conditions, officials said.

For much of the month of October, ODOT has conducted 150-point inspections and other tests to ensure snow removal equipment is in working order. The tests and inspections are part of the department’s county-by-county operational readiness events.