How Do Students Get MCPS Snow Day Predictions?
After a three day closure for MCPS, students returned to school with a two-hour delay on Thursday, January 9. Subsequently, January 21 and 22 also resulted in delays due to snow and hail that occurred on Sunday, January 19. Over these weeks, many students and parents relied on Instagram as a source of information regarding school closures and delays. Notably, the Instagram accounts “@MrMoco” and “@mococlosures” emerged as the top resources for reliable predictions on school closures and updates on MCPS decisions regarding delays or closures.
MoCoSnow was created by health teacher Alex Tsironis in 2009, starting as a classroom bulletin board. He would discuss the likelihood of snow at the end of his health classes. Tsironis shared in a Facebook post on December 30, 2024, that “[his] students would return the next day eager to know if snow was still in the forecast, and I would promise to share any updates at the end of class. This eventually led to me making predictions about potential school delays or closures.” These classroom updates gained popularity as his students transitioned from middle school to high schools across the county, where they frequently emailed Tsironis for his snow predictions. Managing the influx of emails became challenging, leading him to create a Google blog and eventually a Twitter (now “X”) account, “@TheMoCoSnow.” Within a week, the account gained 1,000 followers, and it has since grown to an impressive 35.6 thousand followers. Tsironis also posts his MoCoSnow pencil predictions on “@themocoshow” and his personal Instagram, “@mrmoco301.”
Additionally, “@mrmoco301,” managed by Alex Tsironis, has amassed over 19.6 thousand followers. Tsironis is also the founder of several well known Instagram accounts, including “@themocoshow” (with over 152 thousand followers), “@tastemoco” (over 41.3 thousand followers), “@mocopass” (over 2.4 thousand followers), as well as the MoCoSnow account on “X” (with 35.6 thousand followers).
Mococlosures is a student-run Instagram account managed by high schoolers alongside some students with meteorological expertise. Their goal is to provide reliable and timely updates on possible school closures and delays. They have gained almost 8,000 followers. In addition to their Instagram presence, they maintain a strong presence on other social media platforms such as Discord, X, Facebook, Reddit, and Substack. On Instagram, they have partnered with notable figures and organizations, including Praneel Suvarna (the current SMOB), ModeratelyMOCO, Jose Garcia (a high schooler who’s a weather enthusiast), and Washingtonian Weather Geeks.
Mococlosures started posting in the winter of 2023 and have consistently shared multiple daily updates during snow days. Their posts are timely, and their predictions are often accurate. They have even created their own weather code system modeled after MCPS. In their system, “Code Green” means all schools and offices will operate as usual, “Code Yellow” indicates moderate confidence with a chance of delay or closure, and “Code Red” signals high confidence in the closure of all schools and offices. They also have two separate weather codes for snow such as their “SNOWFLAKE RATING”, which ranges from 1 to 5 snowflakes, and “SnowCon,” which ranges from 1 to 5 snowmen. One snowman or snowflake represents low confidence in school closures or delays, while five snowmen or snowflakes indicate extremely high confidence in closures.