School Closing Prediction For Thursday 12/04/2025
- Jonah Drake (Owner & Co-Founder)
- Dec 3, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 8, 2025
Day 1 School Closing Prediction Results
Forecast Valid: Thursday, December 4, 2025
Forecast Issued: Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 3:59 PM EST Forecast Results Published: Thursday, December 4, 2025, 10:04 AM EST
Forecasters: Jonah Drake, Owen Drake, and Jacob Melton
We made it our mission to be transparent this year, even when we're a bit wrong sometimes. With that, we'd like to share the results of last night's School Closing Outlook that we issued shortly after 4:00 PM.
School closures and delays were much more concentrated and a bit more numerous than our "Very Low" outlook indicates. We saw 5 school delays clustered together between Allegan, Hastings, and Paw Paw, an isolated closing in Berrien County with Coloma Schools closing, and a large cluster of closings in Branch and St. Joseph Counties, with only a few schools remaining open.
If we had to redo this map, the "Very Low" risk area in the cyan-shading would have remained as is, but we would have opted to introduce "Medium" or even "Elevated" probabilities for our cluster of closings and delays in Allegan, Barry, and Van Buren Counties, and the we would definetly had added an "Elevated," or even a "High" risk zone across Branch and St. Joseph Counties.
A special note: We know that Ionia Public Schools are closed today; however, this is not a result of weather-related impacts, so it is not reflected on this map. Please keep the Ionia Public Schools family in your thoughts and prayers as they mourn the loss of one of their educators.
Day 1 School Closing Prediction
Forecast Valid: Thursday, December 4, 2025
Forecast Issued: Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 3:59 PM EST
Forecasters: Jonah Drake, Owen Drake, and Jacob Melton
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Summary:
A swath of mixed wintry precipitation and cold wind chills might result in a couple of school closures or delays for Thursday morning across parts of the area.
Discussion:
Wintry mixed precipitation in the form of snow and freezing rain has been falling this afternoon/early evening along and east of US-131, especially north of I-196. This mix has created many slick spots with a light glaze of ice across much of the area.
Additionally, temperatures are expected to fall into the teens and single digits overnight tonight. These cold temperatures, combined with breezy winds, will result in some wind chills falling to sub-zero levels, approaching -10°F, tomorrow morning. These cold wind chills will be the main driving factor for potential school closings along US-10, east of US-131, tomorrow morning, though the potential remains "Very Low."
Further south, the concern lies with the mixed precipitation and snow. Areas east of a Grand Rapids to Mount Pleasant line will see at least a glaze of ice this afternoon and evening, and the low temperatures overnight will prevent effective clearing of this ice - and any snow that falls on top of it. This will be especially true on secondary roadways and in more rural areas, which is where we would expect to see any closures or delays should they occur.
Closer to the lakeshore, across parts of Allegan, Berrien, Van Buren, Kalamazoo, Cass, and Barry Counties, temperatures will be warmer, so we don't have as much concern for freezing drizzle and ice accumulation, but we do expect new snow accumulations ranging from trace amounts to as high as 2 inches overnight. This new snowfall could also result in some slick spots, especially in areas still recovering from the past 3 storm systems and on secondary roadways, and may result in a particularly isolated school closure or delay.
Graphical Forecast:
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