Snow Day Calculator

What is the snow day calculator?

In winter, schools can sometimes decide to have snow days due to severe weather conditions, such as heavy snowfall and winds. When you look outside from your window in heavy snow at night, you naturally get excited about the possibility of your school declaring a snow day. Students enjoy hearing snow day announcements.

However, the decision about a snow day is usually made late at night while students want to know the decision as soon as possible. They usually have to wait all night for the announcement. The snow day calculator kicks the scenes right here to show the possibilities of a snow day while students do not have to wait for the announcement

How to use the snow day calculator

First of all, you can find the snow day calculator in the first section of this page above this article. We positioned the calculator as the first section of the page so that you will not be confused in finding it. Secondly, it is extremely simple to use. You will just enter your location’s zip code, type the number of snow days last year—this is optional only if you have this data—snow days this year, and the type of your school.

These four pieces of information are pretty enough for us to deal with the rest and give you the possibility of a snow day in your location. After entering this information, just click the ‘calculate’ button and wait a few seconds while we run our algorithms. After that, you will see the most accurate results on the page! We hope that you will get a possible snow day result.

The accuracy of the snow day calculator

The snow day calculator on our website utilizes real-time data from NWS, such as snowfall amount, wind speed, wind gusts, temperature, and much more. In addition, the calculator takes extra inputs from the user to improve its accuracy. Behind the scenes, the calculator processes the retrieved data through a number of algorithms and analyzes the results in a combined way. It has been tested in real-time situations several times to see if it yields the correct results, and we keep going in updating its algorithm. Yet, it is worth keeping in mind that most calculators cannot be 100% accurate.

Does the snow day calculator actually work?

Yes! It works. The main aim of the snow day calculator is to calm students’ excitement while they are waiting for an official announcement. Especially when there is no chance of a snow day, you can mentally prepare for another day of studying, which can unfortunately be frustrating 🙁 However, when the calculator shows there is a possibility, you can share this happy news with other friends, and they will be happier. It is worth warning that you should not rely on the calculator that much psychologically since it can yield wrong results sometimes. 🙁

The importance of type of school in the snow day calculator

The type of school is important in determining the possibility of a snow day. For example, urban public schools usually have better infrastructure, snow removal services, and public transportation options. In city centers, the Public Works Department generally has to clean the roads from the early hours so that daily life is not disrupted. When it comes to rural public schools, they can be located far from the centers, and public roads reaching to them might be of lower quality. Also, roads to rural schools can have fewer lines and may go through difficult terrains. These make cleaning roads harder. For this reason, rural schools are known for declaring more snow days. When it comes to private schools, they can align with urban public schools in their decisions, especially if their student population is large. Smaller private schools can be more flexible in their decisions.

The importance of the number of snow days last year and this year

Snow days last year and this year are important to see how inclined a school is to declare a snow day generally. The administrations of each school can have different mentalities; some may tolerate heavy snowfalls more, while others can take the same amount of snowfall even more seriously. In the snow day calculator, we try to assess your school’s tolerance. If your school declared multiple snow days last year and this year, we give more chances to your snow day possibility. However, this does not mean we automatically rule out the possibility of a snow day if your school did not have any snow days this year or last year. The snow day calculator takes a lot of different data and phenomena into consideration simultaneously and does its best to result in the best possibility.

Statistics of snow days in the US, Canada, and the UK

When we determine the importance of the number of previous snow days, it is important to know official statistical data on snow days in different countries. For example, in the United States, schools on average decide on two to six different snow days in a year. Numbers are higher in the Northeast and Midwest of the country. Numbers are even higher in Canada, as it experiences colder winters. A typical school in Canada can decide on from five to fourteen days of snow days. In the UK, the figures are lower, as the country receives less snowfall.

The importance of the National Weather Service (NWS) in the snow day calculator

The most important parameter in calculating snow day possibility is to know weather conditions. Without real-time data, the snow day calculator cannot function effectively. The National Weather Service (NWS) supplies people with very detailed weather data of all locations across the United States. Our website uses NWS weather data, which are related to snow and extreme weather conditions. We especially take weather conditions right before the opening hours of schools in the morning into consideration. However, the calculator also reviews the weather conditions on the previous day to see if huge piles of snow had accumulated on the ground.

The snow day calculator is always developing.

As with most other applications, we keep developing the snow day calculator regularly. In the digital world, there are no limits to how far an application can go, and we are aware of this fact. That’s why we will improve the algorithm of the snow day calculator with new ideas. Your feedback and recommendations at this point are very important. If you have a recommendation, please do not hesitate to reach us via the contact page!