Laval · Quebec · 2026–27 season
Snow Day Predictor LavalWill school be cancelled tomorrow in Laval?
Live overnight forecast for the City of Laval, including Chomedey, Sainte-Dorothée, Laval-des-Rapides, Vimont, Sainte-Rose, Fabreville, Auteuil, Duvernay, Saint-François, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, and Pont-Viau. The predictor tunes to CSS de Laval and Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board closure patterns, with 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 Laval unique
Laval is the third-largest city in Quebec, located on an island in the Rivière des Prairies just north of Montreal. CSS de Laval covers the entire island, making it the only major Canadian city with one CSS overseeing the whole urban area.
Greater Montreal North forecast
Laval snow day forecast, what to expect this winter
Laval sits on Île Jésus, the large island in the Rivière des Prairies directly north of the Island of Montreal. With a population of more than 440,000, it is the third-largest city in Quebec after Montreal and Quebec City, and the urban core of the Greater Montreal North sector. The city receives roughly 200 cm of snow in an average winter, marginally higher than downtown Montreal due to slightly cooler overnight temperatures away from the heat island of Montreal’s urban core and an exposed north-facing flank that catches Laurentian-edge precipitation. The forecast for any given school day in Laval depends on whether the storm tracks through the St. Lawrence corridor, on the depth of cold-air drainage off the Rivière des Prairies overnight, and on whether the morning rush hour overlaps the worst hours of the storm.
School operations on the island are organized around a structure that is unusual for Canada. CSS de Laval is the French-language public centre de services scolaire covering the entire municipality, the only major Canadian city where a single CSS oversees the whole urban area without crossing into neighbouring municipalities. The English-language equivalent is Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (SWLSB), which serves not just Laval but the Laurentides and Lanaudière regions to the north. CSS de la Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles, headquartered in nearby Saint-Eustache, serves adjacent Lanaudière families and operates a small number of routes that touch Laval’s western edge. Each network contracts its own bus operators directly; there is no inter-board consortium of the kind found in Ontario.
Because closure calls are independent, it is common in Laval for CSS de Laval to cancel buses while Sir Wilfrid Laurier keeps its English schools open, or for one network to close on a borderline storm and the other to remain open. Our predictor returns separate probabilities for school closure and bus cancellation, and treats the French and English networks as distinct decisions even though they share the same forecast. Calls are typically posted to each board’s website and social channels by 6:00 am the morning of, so the value of an overnight probability is in giving parents a working answer the night before.
School boards
Laval school boards we model
The boards and transportation operators that make the morning closure call for Laval.
- Centre de services scolaire de Laval (CSS de Laval)
The French-language CSS covering all of Laval, the only major Canadian city with a single CSS overseeing the entire municipality. Closure decisions apply island-wide and are posted by 6:00 am.
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board (SWLSB)
English-language Quebec board serving Laval, the Laurentides, and Lanaudière. Operates separately from CSS de Laval and may close on different days for the same storm.
- Centre de services scolaire de la Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles
French-language CSS based in Saint-Eustache; serves adjacent Lanaudière communities and a small number of Laval-edge routes. Closure decisions are made separately from CSS de Laval.
- Conseil scolaire francophone du Québec (relevant Catholic structures)
Francophone Catholic school structures that historically served the area; many sites now integrated under CSS de Laval but retain distinct parish-based reporting in some neighbourhoods.
Bus transportation
CSS de Laval contracts its own bus operators directly, as does Sir Wilfrid Laurier. There is no inter-board consortium in Quebec, so closure decisions are made independently by each network. Calls are typically made by 6:00 am the morning of, posted to each board’s website and social media. It is common for CSS de Laval to cancel buses while Sir Wilfrid Laurier keeps its English routes running, or vice versa, even though both networks see the same overnight weather.
Local weather
Laval’s signature winter weather patterns
The phenomena that produce most Laval snow days.
- St. Lawrence freezing-rain corridor
Laval sits squarely within the St. Lawrence Valley freezing-rain band, where warm air aloft from the southwest overruns a shallow cold layer trapped along the river. The January 1998 Great Ice Storm is the defining event; smaller freezing-rain episodes occur several times each winter and are the single most common cause of CSS de Laval closures.
- Rivière des Prairies cold-air drainage
Cold air pools along the Rivière des Prairies overnight, dropping temperatures in low-lying Laval-des-Rapides and Pont-Viau several degrees below the higher northern neighbourhoods of Sainte-Rose and Auteuil. This can shift a borderline storm from rain to snow in southern Laval while leaving the north of the island in snow throughout.
- Northern Montreal suburb cold-air pooling
Laval’s position north of the Island of Montreal places it outside the Montreal urban heat island. Overnight lows in Chomedey or Vimont routinely run 2 to 4 °C colder than downtown Montreal, enough to change the precipitation type during transitional events.
- Polar air outbreaks affecting all of Greater Montreal
Arctic outbreaks behind a Colorado low or Alberta clipper can drop wind chills to −35 °C across the Greater Montreal region. CSS de Laval rarely closes on cold alone, but the combination of extreme cold with even modest snowfall triggers most January and February closure days.
- Snow accumulation slightly higher than downtown Montreal
North-facing exposures in Sainte-Rose, Auteuil, and Saint-François catch slightly heavier accumulations than downtown Montreal during Laurentian-edge events, with seasonal totals typically running 10 to 20 cm above the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport benchmark.
History
Notable Laval snow days in recent winters
Storms and ice events that shaped how Laval school boards approach the morning call.
Great Ice Storm
January 5-10, 1998The Great Ice Storm devastated Laval along with Montreal and the broader St. Lawrence Valley. Five days of freezing rain deposited up to 100 mm of ice glaze across Île Jésus, collapsing the Hydro-Québec transmission grid and leaving much of Laval without power for weeks. All Laval schools closed for an extended period; the storm remains the benchmark against which every subsequent ice event in the region is measured.
38 cm March storm
March 8, 2017A late-season Colorado low dropped 38 cm of snow on Laval over a 12-hour overnight period with 60 km/h winds. CSS de Laval and Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board both closed all schools and cancelled buses; Highway 15 and Autoroute 440 saw multi-vehicle pileups. One of the clearest recent examples of a storm severe enough to trigger a coordinated closure across both French and English networks.
Major Quebec winter storm
January 17, 2022A Colorado low tracking up the St. Lawrence delivered 30 to 40 cm of snow to Laval with sustained 50 km/h winds. CSS de Laval, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and CSS de la Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles all closed; the storm forced the temporary suspension of STL bus service across the island. A textbook full-network Laval closure.
Storm of the Century
March 4-5, 1971The Storm of the Century affected Laval as part of the broader Quebec snowstorm that paralyzed Montreal and the south shore. Wind gusts over 100 km/h created drifts of more than two metres across Île Jésus; schools across the predecessor French and English boards closed for multiple days. Still cited in Quebec emergency planning documents as the worst single storm in living memory.
Pre-Christmas storm
December 23, 2022A multi-day winter storm hit Laval the Friday before Christmas with 25 cm of snow, freezing rain, and wind gusts to 90 km/h. CSS de Laval closed schools early; Sir Wilfrid Laurier cancelled afternoon classes. Holiday travel through Laval’s Autoroute 15 and 440 corridors was severely disrupted.
February 2019 Laval ice event
February 13, 2019A freezing-rain band parked over Laval for nearly 12 hours, depositing 25 mm of ice glaze on north-facing surfaces in Sainte-Rose and Auteuil. CSS de Laval closed all schools; Sir Wilfrid Laurier closed its Laval sites while keeping Laurentides schools open, a clear illustration of how the same storm produces different decisions across the English board’s footprint.
FAQ
Laval snow day frequently asked questions
The 7 questions Laval parents and teachers ask us most.
Will CSS de Laval close tomorrow?
Type your Laval postal code or "Laval, Quebec" into the predictor above. CSS de Laval covers the entire island of Laval as a single network, so a closure decision applies to every neighbourhood from Chomedey to Saint-François. Calls are typically posted by 6:00 am the morning of on the CSS de Laval website and social channels; our predictor gives you a probability the night before based on the overnight forecast.
Will Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board close in Laval tomorrow?
Sir Wilfrid Laurier (SWLSB) makes its closure decision independently of CSS de Laval, even for the same storm. Because SWLSB also covers the Laurentides and Lanaudière, it sometimes splits its decision by region, closing northern sites while keeping Laval open, or vice versa. The predictor returns a probability tuned to Laval specifically; check the SWLSB website and Twitter feed for the official call by 6:00 am.
How does Laval winter weather differ from Montreal?
Laval sits on Île Jésus, north of the Island of Montreal, and is generally 2 to 4 °C colder overnight due to the absence of Montreal’s urban heat island and cold-air drainage off the Rivière des Prairies. Seasonal snowfall in Laval averages 10 to 20 cm higher than the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport benchmark, with the heaviest accumulations in the northern neighbourhoods of Sainte-Rose, Auteuil, and Saint-François. The same storm can fall as freezing rain in downtown Montreal and as snow in northern Laval.
Are Laval bus operators coordinated with Montreal?
No. CSS de Laval contracts its own bus operators directly, separately from CSSDM (Centre de services scolaire de Montréal) and the other Montreal-area centres. There is no Quebec equivalent of the Ontario student transportation consortium model. A CSSDM bus cancellation in Montreal has no automatic effect on Laval; CSS de Laval makes its own call based on conditions on Île Jésus.
Will school be cancelled in Chomedey or Sainte-Dorothée tomorrow?
Chomedey, Sainte-Dorothée, Laval-des-Rapides, Vimont, Sainte-Rose, Fabreville, Auteuil, Duvernay, Saint-François, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, and Pont-Viau are all served by CSS de Laval as a single network, so a closure applies to every neighbourhood at once. Enter your specific postal code in the predictor; we use your exact coordinates to pull hourly forecast data rather than averaging across the island, which matters because northern Laval often sees several more centimetres than the south end during the same storm.
Does CSS de Laval always close with CSSDM in Montreal?
No. CSS de Laval and CSSDM (Centre de services scolaire de Montréal) make their closure decisions independently, even though they cover adjacent territory. Because Laval is generally colder than downtown Montreal and receives slightly more snow on north-facing exposures, CSS de Laval will sometimes close while CSSDM stays open on borderline storms. The reverse can also happen when a freezing-rain band sits over Montreal but leaves Laval in snow.
Will Sir Wilfrid Laurier close with CSSDM (English vs French in Laval)?
Sir Wilfrid Laurier (English, Laval and points north) and CSSDM (French, Montreal) cover different territories and make independent decisions. Even within Laval itself, Sir Wilfrid Laurier and CSS de Laval can disagree, with one network closing English schools while the other keeps French schools open. Our predictor returns the probability for each network separately so families with children in both systems can plan accordingly.
Near Laval
Nearby Quebec cities
Other Quebec cities our forecast covers — same regional profile, different local weather.
Looking for forecasts across the rest of Quebec? View the Quebec hub with all school boards, transportation consortia, weather zones, and a full city directory. Or browse the provinces & territories hub for every Canadian region.
Also in Quebec: Quebec City · Gatineau · Sherbrooke · Trois-Rivières · Saguenay · Lévis
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