Will school be canceled on Thursday? Check the Snow Day Calculator
Winter blast incoming for Wednesday overnight into Thursday
Alan Longstreet gives the forecast on how much snow we are expecting - and a possible second storm for Saturday.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - A winter storm is bearing down on Metro Detroit and is expected to bring in the highest snow totals of a single event this season. And it's coming right in the middle of a school week.
We expect between 4 and 7 inches of snow Wednesday into Thursday with some parts farther north even getting closer to 9 inches of snow.
With this snowstorm, the farther south and east you are, the less snow you'll get. But in Michigan, almost all the lower peninsula is under a Winter Storm Watch. Here in Metro Detroit, that includes all of Southeast Michigan:
- St. Clair County
- Lapeer County
- Monroe County
- Livingston County
- Wayne County
- Washtenaw County
- Macomb County
- Oakland County
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So, with all of this being said, can we expect a snow day?
Quite simply, probably so.
And this isn't just a stab in the dark. There's a very helpful tool to predict exactly that: the Snow Day Calculator.
How to use the Snow Day Calculator
What you can do:
The Snow Day Calculator requires one thing: your zip code.
Just enter your five-digit zip code and click calculate.
For instance, in Southfield, there's a 99% chance of a snow day for Thursday, Feb. 13, based on the snow forecasted to fall Wednesday into Thursday.
In Detroit, that number is a bit lower, at 66%. Similarly, Monroe is at 55%.
The heaviest snow is tracking over Washtenaw, Oakland, and Lapeer Counties, meaning those counties are more likely to have a snow day.
What is the Snow Day Calculator?
The Snow Day Calculator does exactly that – it calculates the odds of a snow day for the current day and the next day.
It was developed by a student at MIT and works with the National Weather Service to deliver a prediction of whether there will be a snow day on the current day or one for tomorrow – based entirely off your zip code.
When will school closings be posted?
School closings for Thursday will be called in by the school districts as early as Wednesday night. If schools do call off classes on Thursday, they will likely come in the morning as students and families are getting ready for the day.
You can check the latest closings at FOX2Detroit.com/closings
The Source: For this story, we consulted Snowdaycalculator.com and FOX 2 meteorologists Alan Longstreet and Derek Kevra.