About
Why We Built snowpredictor.ca
Every winter, millions of Canadian parents wake up before dawn asking the same question: will school be cancelled today? The problem was not a lack of weather tools — AccuWeather, The Weather Network, and Environment Canada all provide excellent forecasts. The problem was that none of those tools answered the specific question Canadian parents needed answered: given this weather forecast, will my school board decide to close schools?
The most popular snow day prediction tools were built for American schools. Their algorithms reflect American school district policies, American weather thresholds, and American bus safety standards. A tool calibrated against Cleveland school board history tells you nothing useful about the Simcoe County DSB in Barrie, which closes proactively during Georgian Bay lake-effect events that American tools don’t even recognise as a weather pattern.
We built snowpredictor.ca to fix this gap — a dedicated Canadian tool built from the ground up with Canadian data, for Canadian students, Canadian parents, and Canadian school boards.
Our Mission
To be the most accurate, most Canadian, and most trusted snow day prediction resource for families across all 10 Canadian provinces. We are committed to transparency about how our predictions work, honest about where our algorithm is less reliable, and continuously improving our model based on real observed closures every winter season.
What Makes snowpredictor.ca Different
- Canadian school board data, not generic thresholds. Our algorithm reflects how individual Canadian boards respond to weather. The SCDSB’s Georgian Bay lake-effect history is fundamentally different from the CBE’s response to Chinook wind chill events in Calgary, which is different from the VSB’s freezing rain protocols in Vancouver. We model each board individually.
- Environment Canada weather data. The official Canadian meteorological source. Updated every hour. The same data your school board administrator is looking at when they make the closure decision.
- Full provincial and city coverage. Dedicated pages for all 10 provinces and major cities within each, with specific school board information. No other snow day tool offers this level of Canadian geographic specificity.
- Completely free, always. No account, no email address, no subscription. Ever.
Our Data Sources
Weather data: Open-Meteo API, integrating Environment Canada’s Meteorological Service of Canada feeds (primary for Canadian locations), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and the US Global Forecast System (GFS). Environment Canada’s Global Deterministic Prediction System (GDPS) is our primary model for Canadian locations.
School board calibration data: Compiled from publicly available school board closure announcements, board policy documents, historical press releases, and Transportation Department guidelines published on individual board websites. Five years of closure records across major Canadian school boards.
Contact & Feedback
We want to hear from you — especially when our predictions are wrong. Every reported error in a specific location helps us improve our calibration for that board and region. If our prediction significantly missed an event in your area, please use our contact page to let us know. Include your city, the date, what we predicted, and what actually happened. We review all feedback and respond within 48 hours during the winter season.
For partnership inquiries, data collaboration requests, or media questions, contact us through the same form.
Want to learn more? Check out our complete methodology here.