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Cover image for Building a Snow Day Predictor: Introducing the Snow Day Calculator 2025
Daud Ali
Daud Ali

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Building a Snow Day Predictor: Introducing the Snow Day Calculator 2025

Winter mornings can be unpredictable — and nothing disrupts routines like a surprise school closure due to snow. That’s why I built the Snow Day Calculator 2025, a web-based tool that predicts school closures with real-time weather data, historical trends, and AI-powered analytics.

Check it out live here: Snow Day Calculator

Why I Built It

As a developer, I’ve always been fascinated by predictive analytics. Snow days are a real-world problem where data science meets everyday life:

Parents want to plan their mornings

Students hope for an extra day off

Schools need to make safe, timely closure decisions

Most weather apps only tell you how much snow will fall — not how that translates into school closures. That’s the gap I wanted to solve.

How the Snow Day Calculator Works

The tool combines several data sources and algorithms:

Real-Time Weather Forecasts – Snowfall predictions, temperature trends, and wind chill.

Historical School Closure Data – Patterns from past storms to understand how likely schools are to close in similar conditions.

Predictive Modeling – AI/ML algorithms estimate the probability of closure based on the combined data.

The output is a simple percentage showing your school’s chance of a snow day.

Tech Stack

Front-End: HTML, CSS, JavaScript

Back-End: Node.js / Python (for predictive calculations)

Data Sources: OpenWeather API for live forecasts

Deployment: Fully responsive, works on desktop & mobile

How to Use

Visit Snow Day Calculator

Enter your city or ZIP/postal code

Select your school type (Elementary, High School, University)

Click Calculate

Instantly see your snow day probability

It’s simple, fast, and free — perfect for students, parents, and educators alike.

Lessons Learned

Building this tool taught me a lot about:

Data integration: Combining real-time APIs with historical datasets

Predictive modeling: Designing a lightweight AI model for probabilistic outputs

UX for non-technical users: Presenting complex calculations in a clear, actionable way

Next Steps

Expanding coverage beyond USA & Canada

Incorporating late-start predictions and partial closure probabilities

Adding notifications for extreme snow events

Try It Yourself

You can experiment with the tool here: https://onlinecalculators.shop/snow-day-calculator/

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