How to use it for Simcoe County
The calculator opens on Barrie with metric units. Enter the snow expected by morning in centimetres, when it falls, any freezing rain, and the morning temperature and wind from your weather app. If you live in a rural part of the county, pick Rural: long routes on side roads and open fields are where wind drifts snow back across the road, and the calculator raises the chance for them.
The headline is the chance that buses are cancelled, because that is what a Simcoe County “snow day” is. The line under it is the chance schools close outright, which is rare.
Why Barrie needs more snow than Toronto
Barrie sits in the snowbelt east of Georgian Bay. It averages about 223 cm of snow a year against Toronto’s 108 cm, and a day with about 18 to 19 cm of snow comes around once a winter. That is the local snow tolerance the calculator measures tonight’s snow against. So 10 cm overnight scores around 40% in a suburban part of Barrie, while 15 cm with a 40 km/h wind on rural routes scores around 80%.
Lake-effect squalls are patchy: Midland or Collingwood can be buried while Bradford sees flurries. That is why SCSTC decides by zone. The climate numbers here come from the Barrie station; the North and West zones get more snow than that, so read the result as a Central zone estimate and nudge it up for the snowier zones.
After you check
Look at simcoecountyschoolbus.ca or SCSTC’s Twitter from about 6 a.m., and find your own zone rather than Barrie’s. If buses are cancelled and you can get there safely, SCDSB schools are still open; for Catholic schools, read the board’s notice.
Barrie, Orillia and Simcoe County: the numbers the calculator uses
| Snow in an average year | 223 cm (88 in) |
|---|---|
| One-day snowfall reached about once a winter (the snow tolerance) | 19 cm (7.5 in) |
| Average winter low, December to February | −10 °C (13 °F) |
| Climate station | Barrie WPCC, ECCC Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010 |
| Headline outcome | Buses cancelled (schools usually stay open) |
| Cold rule | No published rule found; the calculator estimates about −35 °C (−30 °F) wind chill. |
| Official call | Simcoe County Student Transportation Consortium: SCSTC’s policy aims to post cancellations by 6:00 a.m., by weather zone; SCDSB tells families to expect them between 6 and 7 a.m. SCDSB: “When buses are cancelled SCDSB schools remain open for student learning.” |