With the beginning of winter nearing, everyone’s favorite days are approaching. Snow days mark the most wonderful time of the year and MoCoSnow creator and Watkins Mill alum Alexander Tsironis gave The Current his winter weather expectations.

Starting off the season with the new MoCoSnow App, Tsironis’ spot-on predictions on snow days and delays in Montgomery County will be more convenient to get than ever before. The app will give a specific percentage for a predicted delay or closing.

“There’s currently a cold weather pattern coming in that should last until the holidays, which could mean December snow, but even that isn’t guaranteed,” Tsironis said. Tsironis expects an average amount of snowfall this winter, recognizing there’s no way to predict long term. “All it takes is one big storm to raise that or one big miss to lower it.”

Governor Larry Hogan’s mandate to start school after Labor Day means there are only two snow days built into the school year instead of the usual four. “Our average in the last decade or so has been about [four to five snow days], so I think we should always have at least four or five snow days built in,” Tsironis added.

Since MCPS has to have a certain amount of instructional days, the only way to do it is to take days away from spring break or add on to the school year if they were to go over that certain amount of snow days. “[It’s] tough because people usually have plans for those times well in advance,” Tsironis said.

Tsironis does not believe that the lessening of snow days built in will have an effect on how strict MCPS is with deciding delays or closings. “The way they make the call is based on student safety. They can’t be less willing to make a call just because we don’t have as many snow days built in,” Tsironis added.

“Ultimately I’m more of a ‘give me snow days now and worry later’ type of person,” Tsironis said. The app is only available for iOS right now, but Tsironis is looking to make it for Android users as well.