West Virginia Snow Day Predictor

West Virginia requires at least 900 instructional hours a year, with each county setting the length of its days.

The State Superintendent may lower the minimum in a county under a federal disaster declaration or a Governor's emergency declaration tied to the lost hours.

If the calendar can no longer reach 900 hours, the county must lengthen scheduled days or hold class on other available days, including scheduled out-of-calendar days, but not holidays, election day or weekends.

Under a state approved county plan, work assigned and graded on days closed for weather counts for up to 25 hours of instructional time.

Each county must have a policy that adds minutes or hours to recover time lost to late starts and early dismissals.

All 55 in the state, by ZIP, with a page of their own for 48, including Kanawha, Berkeley and Cabell. Every page carries the district’s own snow record and the odds for its next three school mornings.

A typical West Virginia district sees about 1.8 weekday mornings a winter with 2 inches of new snow or more, and 0.6 with 4 inches or more, counted on weekdays from December 1 through March 31 at each district’s nearest NOAA weather station over ten winters. The snowiest districts in the table see several times that.

Three school mornings, as far as the National Weather Service hourly forecast reaches. Weekends and the district’s winter break are skipped, so a Friday storm is read for Monday’s buses.