Winter on the Web: New Jersey Schoolkid Develops Snow-Day Calculator

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REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

For kids who live in snowy regions, anticipating snow days is a time-honored winter tradition. But the tradition, like many others, may change with new technology.

When he was in the sixth grade, David Sukhin came up with an algorithm to predict when his school would declare a snow day. So while his classmates goofed off after school, he built the Snow Day Calculator, which he has used for every snowstorm since. Sukhin is now in 11th grade, and his calculator has not failed him once.

(More on TIME.com: See pictures of snowstorms hitting the east coast)

Sukhin is secretive about his formula, but he told WBUR it combines Weather.gov data, strictness of school districts and local snow removal efforts. The format, he said, hasn’t changed for the past five years.

NewsFeed finds this idea ingenious, but we wonder — will this take all the fun out of waking up, turning on the radio and eagerly waiting the announcement? (WBUR, via MetaFilter)

(More on TIME.com: See pictures of stranded travelers after a snowstorm)