1. Find the place
A city stays in Canada through the Open-Meteo geocoder. A postal code uses OpenStreetMap Nominatim. Ambiguous names ask you to pick.
Snow Day Predictor Canada — Will School Be Closed Tomorrow?
Check the chance of a school closure or a bus cancellation anywhere in Canada. The formula is published, and the decision still belongs to your school board.
Check a place
Weather data: Open-Meteo. Canadian postal codes use OpenStreetMap Nominatim. This is an estimate, not a school-board announcement. Estimate only. Check your board.
How the estimate is made
2. Read the morning window
Overnight snow, freezing rain, gusts, and the feels-like temperature from 5 to 8 a.m. count. Snow that peaks before dawn counts more than snow that ended at supper.
3. Publish two scores
School closure and bus trouble are separate, because in much of Canada the buses stop first. The percentage stops at 97. A forecast is not a guarantee.
Provinces
Ontario
Boards close schools. Consortia often cancel buses first. Lake-effect snow belts north of Toronto play by different rules than the city.
Quebec
Service centres and English boards decide for their own schools. A snow day is not a planned pedagogical day.
British Columbia
School districts decide. On the south coast, a small snowfall can disrupt hills and buses that rarely see snow.
Alberta
Boards close for snow and for cold. Calgary's chinooks can change the morning between the forecast and the bell.
Manitoba
Divisions decide locally. Blowing snow and deep cold can close schools when the new-snow total looks modest.
Saskatchewan
Divisions decide. We do not have city pages here yet; search Regina, Saskatoon, or a postal code.
Nova Scotia
Regional centres decide. Nor'easters and freezing rain often matter more than a dry snowfall.
New Brunswick
Districts announce locally. Fredericton and Moncton are used to big storms; ice is the wild card.
Prince Edward Island
The Island is small and windy. Search Charlottetown or a postal code; we do not have a city page yet.
Newfoundland and Labrador
NLSchools is the provincial authority. St. John's gets heavy snow and wind; the score is not a closure notice.
Guides
- Bus cancellations versus school closures in Ontario
Why Ontario often cancels buses and keeps schools open, and how to read the two scores on a storm morning.
- Extreme cold and school closures
How wind chill closes schools on clear days, and where this model is more sensitive to cold.
- How much snow does it take for a snow day in Canada?
Why no centimetre threshold covers the country, and how this site's curve treats Barrie and Vancouver differently.
- How school boards decide snow days
Who actually calls a Canadian snow day, what they weigh before buses roll, and why there is no national rule.
- Ice days and freezing rain
Why a little freezing rain closes more Canadian schools than a deeper, drier snowfall, and how the score counts it.
- Is a snow day predictor accurate?
What a school-closure probability can and cannot tell you, and why this site does not publish a hit rate.
- Snow day rituals
The night-before refresh, the alphabetical wait, and the Quebec pedagogical day that is not a snow day.
- What to do on a snow day
A practical snow-day plan for Canadian families, including the morning when only the bus is cancelled.
Questions parents ask
Is this an official school-board announcement?
No. Snow Day Predictor Canada estimates a chance from the public weather forecast. Your school board or transportation consortium makes the decision, and only their site or phone line is the announcement.
Why are there two scores?
In much of Canada, and especially Ontario, buses can be cancelled while schools stay open. The closure score and the bus score use different thresholds so that split is visible instead of hidden inside one number.
How far ahead can I look?
The tool scores today, tomorrow, and the rest of a seven-day window. The first two days are the ones to plan around. Later days stay on the page with a lower-confidence label because the forecast itself is less settled.
Can I search a postal code?
Yes. A full Canadian postal code or the first three characters (the forward sortation area) is looked up through OpenStreetMap Nominatim. A city name is looked up through the Open-Meteo geocoder, limited to Canada.
Why might the morning decision differ from the score?
Boards also weigh local road reports, whether yards can start the fleet, walk zones, and building access. Those details are not in a national forecast model. Use the score the night before, then confirm on the official site in the morning.
Email alerts
Email alerts are off until a provider is configured. Set ALERT_WEBHOOK_URL for a list service, or MAIL_PROVIDER=resend with RESEND_API_KEY, MAIL_FROM, and MAIL_TO, then rebuild. This deployment will not pretend to save your address.