At 8:20 this morning, students were prepared to go to school, having enjoyed some extra sleep after the county announced a two-hour delay. Those who didn’t check a minute later, however, would have been unaware that school was cancelled for the entire day.

MCPS announced at 4:45 a.m. that schools would be delayed two-hours due to snow. But at 8:21, only an hour before school was supposed to start, they retracted the announcement and replaced it with one that excited students even more: schools were closed.

While students were certainly pleased with the news, the untimely announcement also caused some problems. After seeing the original announcement early in the morning, few expected a second announcement because MCPS rarely replaces the first decision regarding cancellation.

“Once I saw the announcement about the two-hour delay at 5:30 I didn’t think to wait for another announcement about the cancellation of school,” junior Sam Wenger said. “I’ve never seen MCPS give a clarification announcement cancelling school just before school started.”

The surprising announcement caused problems for students who were already getting ready for or even going to school.

“I saw that there was a delay, so I didn’t think to look again,” junior Angie Ames said. After getting ready for school and to leave, Ames was walking out the door when she found out that school was cancelled.

Other students made it as far as the bus stop before finding out school was cancelled.

“I waited outside for ten minutes and it was pretty annoying,” sophomore Hannah Aalamensour said. She added that she “waited until well past when my bus was supposed to come” before finding out that school was cancelled.

MCPS originally thought a two-hour delay would provide enough time to clear the roads, which is why they did not cancel score at 4:45 a.m. when they first announced the delay.

“We go through a long list of steps when we are making a weather-related decision,” MCPS Communication Specialist Gboyinde Onijala said. “At that point [at 4:45 this morning], it looked like everything would be passable for a two hour delay.”

The snow day came as a bit of a surprise to many. Both the Washington Post and NBC’s local meteorologists predicted that while delays were definitely possible, cancellations were unlikely. The snow exceeded most predictions, accumulating up to three inches in some places.

Sophomore Ari Neugeboren, who studies meteorology and has become a common source for students looking for snow day predictions, said that the snow exceeded his expectations because of the way the clouds formed right over much of the county. He also voiced surprise that MCPS hadn’t cancelled school from the get-go.

“What I don’t get is why MCPS takes five hours of school over the lives of their students,” he said.

Later this morning, MCPS recognized the need for cancellation.

“The forecast changed, the weather changed, and we determined that a cancellation was necessary,” Onijala said.

The snow day comes at an inopportune time with exams looming. While some students are worried about missing review days and final tests before exams, acting principal Karen Bryant thinks that the snow day is worth it.

“Although we will miss a day of instruction and review as we move towards final exams, it is important to acknowledge the safety hazard inclement weather presents, such as this morning, and respond accordingly,” Bryant said.

Unfortunately, some students made it all the way to school before finding out it was closed.

Sophomore Caroline LaPlante said that she left early for school to meet with a teacher and was on the road before she heard the announcement that school was closed.

“The roads were awful,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been out on the roads unless I had to.”