Special edition iceWatch

Why is the weather so cruel? The snow gods from above have hit us hard on nearly every scheduled day off this winter (think several inches of snow the day before semester break), turning the beautiful prospects of a free day into yet another drab day stuck indoors. And yet every time, the conditions have cleared up before we can get anything more than a two-hour delay the next morning.

At least the pollsters were sympathetic today - the Maryland Board of Elections asked for polls to remain open until 9:30 p.m. to give voters a chance to arrive through the ice and slush. Not that it made any difference - Barack Obama and John McCain swept through Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., capping off the "Potomac Primary," or "Chesapeake Challenge." But with both bodies of water freezing over with ice, will MCPS be as understanding and give us a little reprieve with our first day off this year?

Predictions - where we make up fake numbers based on actual facts

Chance of delayed opening: 80 percent

The roads are glazed over with ice, and I-270 and I-495 felt the crunch of an extra-long rush hour this evening. Take tonight's traffic and add a slew of BFYBs (big friendly yellow buses), and you've got a potential mess for tomorrow's commute. MCPS should be wise and save a couple of lawsuits (and home phone calls, courtesy of Dave Kori) and give us those two extra hours of slumber.

And as hardcore journalists, we always have to ask the tough questions. What happens if you mix a two-hour delay and a scheduled advisory period? Five minutes of class? (No one's complaining).

Chance of closing: 10 percent

Although the temperature currently stands at 33 degrees, according to weather.com, one degree above the magic number 32, the mercury will continue to inch up through the night, hitting 45 degrees by 7 a.m. and leaving us with a whole lot of rain. Oh well, maybe after losing the Grammy for Record of the Year and Song of the Year - both to trainwreck and melodic-genius Amy Winehouse - Rihanna will let Blazers stand under her umbrella-ella-ella as students pour in for another day of school.

iceWatch Fact (because we really are weather experts): Pagophagia, a type of eating disorder, is the compulsive consumption of ice. We probably don't have to worry about that, but we just wish MCPS was more liticaphobic (fear of being sued) because we all have a little didaskaleinophobia (fear of going to school).