Chuck Morgan is a familiar face for many Lincoln East students and faculty members. He was a teacher in the geography department for 24 years until his retirement in 2021, where he later became a long term substitute teacher in the culinary department, and quickly transitioned into a campus security guard. Yet his involvement doesn’t end there. Morgan has created a unique persona for himself: a Lincoln Public Schools snow day predictor.
For the past 16 years that Morgan has been predicting snow days, he has only been incorrect three times, with 37 correct guesses.
“I would always tell my class [my predictions], so then I got into just doing it for the whole school and somehow it got to be bigger than I ever anticipated it to be,” Morgan said. “I never meant to go out and become an ‘influencer.’ It just kind of snowballed.”
Without intentions of gaining attention on social media, Morgan’s Twitter account @weather4us gained over 8,800 followers, along with 2,800 followers on his Instagram. One of his recent posts even got attention from Lincoln Public Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Paul Gausman, who commented, “Pretty early call/prediction, Chuck!” on January 8, 2024. Yet Morgan was correct, and on January 9, 2024, school was canceled due to inclement weather conditions.
With this gain in social popularity, Morgan chose to use it for the good, and created a Redbubble account where he sells stickers. Rather than pocketing the profit, he donates it to the Backpack Program, a Lincoln Food Bank program that helps send students home with food-filled backpacks.
Many may think that Morgan simply guesses when we will have snow days, which is far from the truth. He uses diligent research, weather model studies, and his previous education to make his decisions.
“I have about 20 (credit) hours in meteorology experience from the University of Nebraska when I was going through my degrees to become a geographer,” Morgan said. “I actually have scientific factual information.”
Although he is well known for predicting days off for school, his roles here at East should not be forgotten. Morgan believes his real job here at Lincoln East has had an even bigger impact on students than his winter weather side project.
”I think my job is to make relationships with kids, work through the hard stuff,” Morgan said. “I try to be the first responder in situations where kids are having a rough day to try to establish myself as a go-to figure instead of the bad guy.”
No matter his job title, Morgan has made sure to make a lasting impact on the people at Lincoln East.
“I love East High School. It’s been home for over 30 years,” Morgan said. “I’m very attached to the people and the students. I love the kids, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this.”