snoWatch

A party the likes of which have never before been seen by math-science magnets was held by KC "Snow, Snow, Money" Costanzo and Branden "It's ok we made that joke, I'm a magnet" Buehler in the wake of their recent successful prediction that school would be canceled earlier this week. For finally making a correct call, the snoWatch editors were rewarded handsomely with a day off and frequent phone calls from friends asking if school would be closed Friday. It would seem that all credibility has been restored to this bastion of winter preparedness or else the writers' friends just have really short memories and, like birds flying into glass windows, have already forgotten how atrocious the snoWatch team's record is when it comes to hazardous weather conditions.

Here's what Weather.com and the National Weather Service are predicting:

Thursday night

» Snow, sleet or freezing rain early, eventually changing just to freezing rain

» 80% chance of precipitation

» Low: 27°

Friday morning

» Precipitation changing to rain by 6 am

» According to the people who know about this stuff: "The temperature will warm quickly, causing [precipitation] to turn to rain. The question is when" the change will occur. – Robert Donaldson, Blair science teacher and former weather forecaster

Chips' best guess: 30% chance of closure, 60% chance of at least a two-hour delay. Yet again, the north and west parts of the county may be our saving grace. While here in Silver Spring, buses will probably encounter nothing but rain as precipitation will probably shift away from freezing rain hours before school starts, Damascus may still have icy conditions into the early morning. If there is still freezing rain coming down in some parts of the county through the morning, a two-hour delay is very possible.

Check the Silver Chips Online weather page for additional information, including a link to real-time weather conditions at Blair.

MCPS weather policies can be found on their emergency information page.

snoWatch discussion: Do Damascus and Poolesville actually exist, or are they just urban legends concocted by students hoping for a few extra snow days?