About Me & Snow Day Predictor

By Sarah Thompson

Hi, I’m Sarah, and I built Snow Day Predictor for families like yours

For as long as I can remember, Canadian winters have fascinated me. The storms, the calm before a snowfall, the way one shift in temperature can change everything, it all drew me into weather forecasting. After studying meteorology and becoming a Certified Weather Forecaster, I spent more than eight years analyzing winter patterns, snowfall totals, and the kinds of storms that bring Canadian life to a halt.

But the idea for Snow Day Predictor didn’t come from textbooks or weather models.

It came from my lived experience and the people around me who were always asking the same question:

“Do you think tomorrow will be a snow day?”

Why I Created Snow Day Predictor

Every winter, I watched families scramble the night before a storm, unsure whether they should prepare lunches, arrange childcare, or plan for a difficult morning drive.

As a forecaster, I could see the signals of snow-day conditions forming, but most people only learned about closures at 6 a.m.

It felt like there was a gap.

A big one.

• Parents needed information earlier.
• Students wanted clarity (and maybe a little hope).
• Teachers needed a sense of what to expect so they could plan lessons more flexibly.

So I decided to build something simple, accessible, and genuinely useful.

Something families could check the night before, not the morning of.

That’s how Snow Day Predictor came to life.

My Mission

My goal is straightforward:

To give Canadians a clear, easy-to-understand estimate of tomorrow’s likelihood of a snow day so that you can plan with confidence.

I wanted to take the stress, uncertainty, and guesswork out of winter.

Not by replacing official announcements, but by offering a helpful early indicator rooted in real data and real patterns.

How My Background Shapes the Tool

I’ve spent years studying:

• Lake-effect snow systems in Ontario
• Blizzard formation on the Prairies
• Coastal storms in Atlantic Canada
• Extreme cold outbreaks and their impact on buses
• How school boards tend to make closure decisions

Through both professional experience and countless winter seasons, I’ve learned which weather signals often lead to cancellations and which ones look dramatic but rarely affect schools.

Snow Day Predictor is built around those insights.

What I Want This Tool to Be

I built this tool with a few values in mind:

1. Simple and Clear

No jargon, no complicated charts, just a clean percentage and an easy visual gauge.

2. Transparent

I openly share how the predictions work because I believe families deserve clarity, not mystery.

3. Privacy-Respecting

I never collect names or personal details.

Your postal code is used solely to identify your region’s weather, nothing more.

4. Useful for All Canadians

Whether you live in downtown Toronto, rural Saskatchewan, coastal Nova Scotia, or the Yukon, I want you to have a tool that reflects the reality of your winter.

5. Continually Improving

Each season teaches us something new about Canadian weather patterns.

Snow Day Predictor will keep evolving alongside those insights.

Who I Built This For

Parents & Guardians

who need to plan their day before the sun rises.

Students

who want to know whether to finish homework or get ready to enjoy a morning off.

Teachers & School Staff

who appreciate a clearer sense of what tomorrow might bring.

Communities

who rely on quick, trustworthy information during winter weather.

A Canadian Tool for a Truly Canadian Winter

Winter here is unlike anywhere else, beautiful, challenging, unpredictable.

From Toronto’s lake-effect surprises to BC’s steep hills, to prairie blizzards that appear out of nowhere, each region has its own patterns.

I designed Snow Day Predictor to honour those differences.

Thank You for Being Here

Creating this tool has been one of the most rewarding parts of my work as a forecaster.

Every message from families, teachers, and students reminds me why I built it in the first place to make winter planning a little easier, a little calmer, and a lot clearer.

If you’d like to learn exactly how predictions are calculated, take a look at the Forecasting Methodology page.

If you want to understand how your information is handled, you can read the Privacy Policy.

Thank you for trusting the Snow Day Predictor.

Stay warm, stay safe and here’s to smoother winter mornings.

Sarah Thompson

Founder & Creator of Snow Day Predictor

Certified Weather Forecaster (Canada)