Windsor · Ontario · 2026–27 season
Snow Day Predictor WindsorWill school be cancelled tomorrow in Windsor?
Live overnight forecast for the City of Windsor, Tecumseh, LaSalle, Amherstburg, Lakeshore, and the rest of Essex County. The predictor tunes to GECDSB and WECDSB closure patterns, with Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services bus cancellation probability returned separately.
Multi-model forecast, five-factor closure engine, province-aware results. No sign-up, no tracking of your queries.
What makes Windsor unique
Windsor is home to the southernmost public schools in Canada, sitting south of Detroit, and has the mildest winters in the province. Freezing rain and ice events occur more often than heavy snow, making ice the dominant closure trigger for GECDSB and WECDSB.
Southwestern Ontario forecast
Windsor snow day forecast, what to expect this winter
Windsor sits at the southern tip of Ontario across the Detroit River from Michigan, giving it a winter climate unlike anywhere else in the province. Schools here sit further south than every public school in the rest of Canada, and the city averages only 80 to 100 cm of snow per year, the lowest in Ontario. What Windsor lacks in snowfall it makes up for in ice. The same warm-air corridor that pushes Gulf moisture up the Mississippi Valley delivers freezing rain to Essex County several times each winter, and the boundary between rain, snow, and ice often sits directly over the city.
School operations across Windsor and Essex County are split between the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB), the public board with roughly 35,000 students, and the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB). Both rely on Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services (WESTS) to run their buses across an area that stretches from downtown Windsor out to Leamington, Kingsville, and Harrow. The boards rarely close school buildings outright. What they do, regularly, is cancel buses, and the trigger is almost always ice rather than snow.
For most Windsor-Essex families, the practical question on a winter morning is whether the roads have iced over. Our forecast returns separate probabilities for school closures and bus cancellations, because in Windsor those two numbers can diverge sharply. A storm that drops 5 cm of snow and 3 mm of freezing rain might keep buildings open while WESTS cancels every bus in the county. The predictor is tuned to that distinction.
School boards
Windsor school boards we model
The boards and transportation operators that make the morning closure call for Windsor.
- Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB)
Public English board serving Windsor, Tecumseh, LaSalle, Amherstburg, Lakeshore, Leamington, Kingsville, and the rest of Essex County. Roughly 35,000 students across more than 70 schools.
- Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB)
Catholic English board across the same Windsor-Essex footprint. Closure decisions usually align with GECDSB on weather days; the two boards coordinate through Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services.
- Conseil scolaire Viamonde
French-language public board serving Windsor and southwestern Ontario; smaller footprint, separate transportation, and independent closure calls.
- Conseil scolaire catholique Providence
French-language Catholic board across southwestern Ontario, including Windsor-Essex. Operates separately from the English boards on weather days.
Bus transportation
Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services (WESTS) coordinates buses for both GECDSB and WECDSB across Windsor and all of Essex County. WESTS announces cancellations between 6:00 and 6:30 am the morning of and posts decisions on its public portal and on the boards’ websites. In Windsor, bus cancellations come from ice events far more often than from snow, and a freezing-rain forecast overnight is the single best predictor of a morning WESTS cancellation.
Local weather
Windsor’s signature winter weather patterns
The phenomena that produce most Windsor snow days.
- Detroit River and Lake Erie influence
Windsor sits between the Detroit River to the north and Lake Erie to the south, both of which moderate winter temperatures. The city is consistently 2 to 4 °C warmer than London or Toronto on the same day, which is why snowfalls that bury the rest of southern Ontario often arrive as rain or mixed precipitation in Essex County.
- Freezing rain corridor
The defining Windsor weather pattern. Warm Gulf air aloft overruns a shallow cold layer at the surface, producing freezing rain that glazes roads, sidewalks, and power lines. The freezing-rain band that runs from the Ohio Valley into southern Ontario sits directly over Windsor several times each winter, and it is the leading cause of GECDSB and WECDSB closure-day calls.
- Lake Erie lake-effect snow
Less frequent than the Lake Ontario or Lake Huron snow belts, but Lake Erie produces narrow, intense snow squalls when easterly or northeasterly winds align over the long axis of the lake. Bands typically affect Leamington, Kingsville, and the southern Essex shoreline more than downtown Windsor.
- Erie shore snow squalls
Sharp squall lines develop along the Essex County shore of Lake Erie when cold Arctic air crosses the still-open water in early winter. Squalls can drop 10 to 20 cm in a few hours along a narrow band, leaving central Windsor clear while Harrow or Kingsville sees significant accumulation.
- Cold-air drainage in the river valley
On clear, calm nights, cold air pools in the low ground along the Detroit River and Little River corridor. Temperatures in those areas can drop 3 to 5 °C below the regional reading, producing localized black ice on bridges and overpasses that the broader Windsor forecast may not capture.
History
Notable Windsor snow days in recent winters
Storms and ice events that shaped how Windsor school boards approach the morning call.
Southern Ontario ice storm reaches Windsor
December 21, 2013The freezing-rain event that paralyzed the GTA also coated Windsor and Essex County with significant ice. GECDSB and WECDSB called multi-day closures into the Christmas break as crews worked to restore power and clear glazed roads. A defining recent reminder that Windsor’s biggest winter risk is ice, not snow.
Late-season ice storm
April 14-15, 2018A two-day freezing-rain event laid down more than 20 mm of ice across Windsor-Essex in mid-April. WESTS cancelled buses, both boards closed schools, and downed branches caused widespread power outages from LaSalle through Tecumseh. A textbook example of how late Windsor’s ice season can run.
February 2008 multi-day winter event
February 6-8, 2008A sustained storm system delivered repeated bands of snow and freezing rain to southwestern Ontario over three days. GECDSB and WECDSB cancelled buses on consecutive mornings, and several schools closed outright as side roads in rural Essex County became impassable.
GTA blizzard reaches southwestern Ontario
January 17, 2022The Colorado low that dropped 30+ cm on Toronto pushed enough snow into Windsor-Essex to trigger a full WESTS bus cancellation and a GECDSB and WECDSB closure. Less severe locally than in the GTA, but still one of the largest single-day snowfalls Windsor has seen in the past decade.
Polar vortex closures
February 2019A multi-day polar vortex episode pushed wind chills below −35 °C across Essex County. Both boards closed schools on the coldest mornings, and WESTS cancelled buses for several days running. Windsor rarely sees cold of that intensity, which made the event notable.
Groundhog Day blizzard
February 1-2, 2011A major winter storm tracked across the central United States and into southern Ontario, dropping 25 to 30 cm of snow on Windsor-Essex with high winds. GECDSB and WECDSB closed schools and WESTS cancelled buses; the storm shut down Highway 401 between Windsor and London for an extended period.
FAQ
Windsor snow day frequently asked questions
The 7 questions Windsor parents and teachers ask us most.
Will GECDSB close tomorrow?
Type your Windsor postal code or "Windsor, Ontario" into the predictor above. The Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) closes buildings only when conditions are genuinely unsafe, most often during freezing-rain events rather than for snow. The more frequent signal is the Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services (WESTS) bus cancellation, which we return as a separate probability. Both numbers update each evening as the overnight forecast firms up.
Are Windsor school buses cancelled today?
For the official call, check the Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services portal or the GECDSB and WECDSB websites. WESTS announces bus cancellations between 6:00 and 6:30 am the morning of and the decision applies to both boards across Windsor, Tecumseh, LaSalle, Amherstburg, Lakeshore, Leamington, Kingsville, and the rest of Essex County. Our predictor returns an advance probability the night before.
Why does Windsor close for ice but rarely for snow?
Windsor’s climate is mild enough that most winter storms arrive as rain, mixed precipitation, or light snow. The city averages only 80 to 100 cm of snow per year, well below London, Hamilton, or Toronto. What does affect Windsor regularly is freezing rain, because the boundary between warm Gulf air aloft and cold surface air sits directly over Essex County several times each winter. Ice glazes roads in a way that 5 cm of snow does not, which is why WESTS, GECDSB, and WECDSB treat freezing-rain forecasts more seriously than snowfall warnings.
How does Lake Erie affect Windsor winter weather?
Lake Erie has two distinct effects. Through November and early December, the warm lake moderates Windsor temperatures and keeps the city 2 to 4 °C warmer than inland southwestern Ontario. Once cold air pushes across the open lake, narrow lake-effect snow bands can set up over Leamington, Kingsville, and the southern Essex shoreline. Those bands rarely reach downtown Windsor but can drop 10 to 20 cm on the shore communities in a few hours.
Will school be cancelled in Tecumseh or LaSalle tomorrow?
Tecumseh, LaSalle, Amherstburg, Lakeshore, and the other Essex County communities are all served by the Greater Essex County District School Board and the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, and Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services covers their bus routes. A WESTS cancellation applies across the entire county. Closure-day decisions are made board-wide rather than community by community. Enter your specific postal code in the predictor to get the forecast for your exact location.
Does WECDSB Catholic always close with GECDSB?
The two English boards usually align on weather days because they share Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services. When WESTS cancels buses, both GECDSB and WECDSB are affected. Closure-day calls on the buildings themselves are made independently by each board’s director of education, but in practice the two boards almost always reach the same conclusion on a given morning. The French boards (Viamonde and Providence) run separate transportation and can make different calls.
How does Windsor winter compare to London or Toronto?
Windsor is the mildest large city in Ontario. The city averages 80 to 100 cm of snow per year compared with roughly 200 cm for London and 120 cm for Toronto, and winter daytime highs run 2 to 4 °C warmer than either. The trade-off is freezing rain. Windsor sits in the southwestern Ontario freezing-rain corridor and sees ice events more often than London or Toronto, which is why the bus-cancellation pattern in Windsor-Essex looks different from the rest of the province even though the total snowfall is lower.
Near Windsor
Nearby Ontario cities
Other Ontario cities our forecast covers — same regional profile, different local weather.
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