8,019 school districts in 29 states, read against the overnight forecast

Snow Day Predictor: Will School Be Closed Tomorrow?

Put in your ZIP for the odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings. Every district is scored against its own snow: four inches shuts a school in Virginia and barely slows one in Buffalo.

Your district, your mornings

Snow day odds for your ZIP

8,019

School districts, each scored against its own snow

across 29 states

3,354

District pages with a ten winter snow record

the snow, the schools and the closing playbook

10.8

School mornings a winter with 4 in of new snow, the most anywhere

Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, New York

3

School mornings read ahead

skipping weekends and breaks

The snow belt, next school morning

Tomorrow across the snow belt

Eight districts that know their way around a storm, from the lake effect bands off Erie and Ontario to the Front Range. Each card reads the National Weather Service forecast for that district and its own big snow morning.

BuffaloNew York
Reading the forecast
SyracuseNew York
Reading the forecast
EriePennsylvania
Reading the forecast
MarquetteMichigan
Reading the forecast
DuluthMinnesota
Reading the forecast
BurlingtonVermont
Reading the forecast
DenverColorado
Reading the forecast
ChicagoIllinois
Reading the forecast

The snowiest school mornings in the country

Where the 4 inch school mornings pile up

Ranked by weekday mornings from December through March with 4 inches or more of new snow at the 7 am reading, averaged over ten winters. The lake effect belts of upstate New York and the Upper Peninsula run away with it. Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, New York, averages 10.8 of them a winter.

#	District	State	4 in mornings a winter	Snow a winter
1	Altmar-Parish-Williamstown Central School DistrictParish	NY	10.8	132.9 in
2	Houghton-Portage Township SchoolsHoughton	MI	10.2	189.4 in
3	South Lewis Central School DistrictTurin	NY	10	186 in
4	Calumet Public SchoolsCalumet	MI	9.9	183.2 in
5	Gowanda Central School DistrictGowanda	NY	9	170.8 in
6	Springville-Griffith Institute Central SchoolSpringville	NY	8.9	178 in
7	Yorkshire-Pioneer Central School DistrictYorkshire	NY	8.9	178 in
8	Park City School DistrictPark City	UT	7.9	134.5 in
9	Lowville Academy and Central School DistrictLowville	NY	7.7	127.4 in
10	Negaunee Public SchoolsNegaunee	MI	7.6	193.2 in
11	General Brown Central School DistrictDexter	NY	7.5	123.9 in
12	South Jefferson Central School DistrictAdams Center	NY	7.5	123.9 in
13	Watertown City School DistrictWatertown	NY	7.5	123.9 in
14	North Country Supervisory UnionNewport	VT	7.4	150.5 in
15	Central Square Central School DistrictCentral Square	NY	7	84.8 in
16	Lamoille North Supervisory UnionHyde Park	VT	6.9	137.7 in
17	Lamoille South Supervisory UnionMorrisville	VT	6.9	137.7 in
18	Camden Central School DistrictCamden	NY	6.8	132.4 in
19	Mexico Central School DistrictMexico	NY	6.7	135.5 in
20	Adirondack Central School DistrictBoonville	NY	6.6	150.4 in
21	Indian River Central School DistrictPhiladelphia	NY	6.4	97.5 in
22	Alden Central School DistrictAlden	NY	6.3	141.8 in
23	N.I.C.E. Community SchoolsIshpeming	MI	6.2	150.8 in
24	Hannibal Central School DistrictHannibal	NY	6.1	123 in
25	Carthage Central School DistrictCarthage	NY	6	121.3 in

29 states, 8,019 districts

Pick your state

Each state page carries every district in the state with its snow record, the state’s own rules for a lost day, the built in snow days the researched districts publish, and the live odds for its biggest systems.

Deep snow country: 30 inches a winter and up

Where a few inches goes a long way

The ZIP box reads the forecast anywhere in the country, including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Wyoming.

How a morning is read

What decides a snow day

Most closings are called between 4:30 and 6 am by a superintendent who has had people driving the roads since 3. What they are weighing is the bus run: how much snow fell overnight, whether more is falling between 5 and 8, whether there is ice under it, and how cold the wait at the stop will be. The odds here read the same things from the National Weather Service hourly forecast.

Snow that counts. The snow from 6 pm to 6 am, plus the bus window, measured against the district’s own big snow morning: the top tenth of its snowy weekday mornings over ten winters.
Ice. A tenth of an inch of freezing rain closes more schools than four inches of powder.
Cold at the stop. A wind chill far below zero closes schools in the Upper Midwest even on a dry morning.
Alerts and the Winter Storm Severity Index. Winter storm warnings and the national impact index weigh in on top.
The district’s own habits. Delay states like Ohio and Pennsylvania call a two hour delay first; districts with remote days turn a closing into a learning day at home.

An orange tractor with a front plow blade and its lights on clears a snow covered country road at dawn, a man in a hat watching from the roadside — A plow out at first light. When the roads can be cleared and treated before the buses roll, a district can call a two hour delay and still hold school. Photo: Hartmut Schmidt Heidelberg, CC BY-SA 4.0

Questions

Snow day questions, answered

How does the snow day predictor work?

It reads the National Weather Service forecast for your ZIP hour by hour: the snow that falls from 6 pm to 6 am, anything still falling during the 5 to 8 am bus run, ice, and the wind chill at the bus stop. It adds any winter storm or extreme cold alert, the Weather Prediction Center Winter Storm Severity Index, what counts as a big snow where you live, and how your state and district handle a bad morning. Out come the odds of a closing and of a delay for each of the next three school mornings.

Why does the same snowfall give different odds in different towns?

Will my school have a delay or a closing?

What is a remote snow day?

When do school districts announce a snow day?

What is the Winter Storm Severity Index?

Which states does the predictor cover?

More winter

The rest of the season

Snow depth mapHow much snow is on the ground right now, measured, across the country.First snow datesWhen the first measurable snow usually lands where you live.Frozen pipesThe nights cold enough to freeze a pipe, and what to do before one.Snow plow trackerWhere the plows are during a storm, city by city.Winter forecast 2026 to 2027The season ahead, state by state.

Children in bright snowsuits pulling sleds up a snowy park hill under tall snow covered pines while snow falls — The sledding hill on a snow day. Every closing call ends up here. Photo, Oak Hill, Virginia, March 2018: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0

The odds are a forecast read, and the superintendent makes the call: the district’s own announcement is the one to follow.