The exclusive AccuWeather.com School Closing Outlook is a prediction of possible school cancellation based upon the expected winter-season weather. It is an alert to keep in touch and be prepared. It should be used as a guide only for keeping in touch with local news media to determine if actual cancellation has occurred. A low Outlook number means the probability of a school cancellation is relatively low; a higher number means the probability is higher.
The Outlook is designed to give you a heads-up on the possibility of a weather-related school cancellation, so you can make appropriate preparation and avoid last-minute scrambling. If, for example, the Outlook says school is likely to be cancelled tomorrow you can benefit from making arrangements in advance for child-care if it would be needed if, in fact, school is cancelled.
The Outlook should not be used to decide if school would actually be cancelled, or to avoid or delay preparation for the coming school day. You should always prepare for school unless and until notice of actual cancellation is received from official district sources. The Outlook should never be used as a reason not to prepare to go to school or to postpone doing school work.
The Outlook does not predict if any given school or district will cancel school, have a delayed opening or early dismissal. It does not tell school authorities if they should cancel school. School authorities can subscribe to AccuWeather services that can help them decide on what actions to take in bad weather situations, but whether or not they subscribe to these services does not have any effect on the Outlook, which is derived through proprietary algorithms that take into account past, current and forecast weather, along with local climatology.
Each school district makes decisions on whether to cancel school based upon a variety of factors in addition to the weather. Different schools and districts may have different criteria based upon factors such as the size of the district, the particular bus routes within the district, whether it is early or late in the winter season, the number of times school has already been cancelled, and any special activities that are scheduled for the day. Depending on these and other factors, a particular district may cancel school on one occasion while following a regular schedule on another occasion, even though the weather may be identical.
The Outlook considers a variety of types of winter weather events that may play a role in the decision whether or not to cancel school, including snow, ice, and extreme cold. It considers not only the actual weather, but its likely impact on road and travel conditions. It also considers the local climatology, whereby an inch of snow in northern Florida may lead to school cancellation, while it would likely take a much greater snow accumulation to cancel school in the Great Lakes snow belts.