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Buffalo, New York, 29,866 students in 61 schools

Buffalo City School District Snow Day Predictor

The odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings in Buffalo, measured against Buffalo's own big snow morning of 3.4 inches.

The next three school mornings

Will Buffalo close tomorrow?

Reading the National Weather Service forecast for the overnight and the bus hours in Buffalo.
The Buffalo playbook

How Buffalo calls a snow day

When the call comes

Prior to 5:00 am for an overnight event; anticipated storms are assessed from 11:00 am through 9:00 pm the day before.

“The assessment will continue until a decisive amount of information is collected, up until 5:00 am. A decision to close schools will be made prior to 5:00 am.”
Source

How families hear

By phone call, text message, email, the district website, social media and local TV.

“Once the decision is made to close, the district's mass phone call, text and email system will send out a message.”
Procedures for Weather Related Emergency School Closings | 2025 - 2026

Remote learning days

Buffalo has remote learning days in its winter plan.

“All staff and students stay home and participate remotely in learning and teaching.”
Source

The 2026 to 2027 calendar

  • First day September 3, 2026
  • Winter break Dec 24 to Jan 1
  • February break Feb 15 to Feb 19
  • Last day June 24, 2027
District calendar

The board policy

“Based on all available information and staff recommendations, the decision to close schools will be made by the Superintendent of Schools.”
Board policy

Read from Buffalo’s own pages on October 8, 2026; the district site is buffaloschools.org.

Ten winters of school mornings

Buffalo’s snow record

72.6inches of snow a winter
7.5school mornings a winter with 2 in of new snow or more
2.6with 4 in or more
3.4 ina big snow morning in Buffalo: the top tenth of snowy school mornings

More 4 inch school mornings than 53% of the 676 New York districts with a station record.

5.5Nov
17.2Dec
24Jan
15.6Feb
8.6Mar
Average snowfall by month, inches
  • Biggest day 18 in on December 24, 2022
  • Snowiest winter 2017 to 2018, 94.4 in
  • 6 in mornings 0.9 a winter
  • 1 in mornings 13.7 a winter

Measured at a NOAA weather station 5.3 miles away. Mornings are the 7 am snow reading on a weekday from December 1 through March 31, over the ten winters from 2016 to 2017 through 2025 to 2026, from NOAA GHCN Daily.

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The New York rule

How New York counts a lost day

New York requires 180 days of session plus 900 hours a year for kindergarten to grade 6 and 990 hours for grades 7 to 12. The Commissioner can excuse up to 5 days closed for extraordinary weather, but only if the district cannot make them up by using all its scheduled vacation days before the June Regents exams.

The New York rules in the agency’s own words, and every New York district

Next door

Districts near Buffalo

DistrictSnow a winter4 in mornings
Cheektowaga-Sloan Union Free School DistrictSloan69 in2.6
Lackawanna City School DistrictLackawanna69 in2.6
Cleveland Hill Union Free School DistrictCheektowaga69 in2.6
Cheektowaga Central School DistrictCheektowaga69 in2.6
Amherst Central School DistrictAmherst69 in2.6
Kenmore-Tonawanda Union Free School DistrictBuffalo72.6 in2.6
The schools

61 schools, the 40 largest here

Every school in Buffalo follows the district’s call: one closing covers them all.

High

  • Hutchinson Central Technical High School
  • City Honors School
  • McKinley Vocational High School
  • Frederick Olmsted #156
  • South Park High School
  • International Preparatory School (the)
  • Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts
  • Burgard High School
  • Lafayette International School
  • Lewis J Bennett High School of Innovative Technolgy
  • Buffalo School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management
  • Math Science Technology Preparatory School at 197

Elementary

  • International School
  • Southside Elementary School
  • Waterfront Elementary School
  • PS 81
  • West Hertel Elementary School
  • Lorraine Elementary School
  • Lovejoy Discovery School #43
  • Frank A Sedita School #30
  • Bennett Park Montessori School
  • PS 64 Frederick Law Olmsted
  • Dr Lydia T Wright Sch of Excellence
  • PS 59 Dr Charles Drew Science Magnet
  • Discovery School
  • Pfc William J Grabiarz #79
  • Buffalo Elementary School of Technology
  • D'youville-Porter Campus
  • Harvey Austin School #97
  • Harriet Ross Tubman Academy
  • PS 27 Hillery Park Academy
  • Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy
  • Community School #53
  • Dr A Pantoja Comm Sch Excllnce -#18
  • PS 69 Houghton Academy
  • Marva J Daniel Futures Preparatory School
  • Martin Luther King Jr #48
  • PS 74 Hamlin Park - Claude and Ouida Clapp Academy
  • Highgate Heights

Other schools

  • Stanley Makowski Early Childhood Center
Questions

Buffalo snow day questions

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More winter

More for New York snow days

Snow day predictorClosing and delay odds for any ZIP, with the snowiest districts in the country.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.New York winter forecastThe season ahead for New York: snowfall, cold and the first snow.
A residential street under deep snow on a bright blue morning, cars parked along the curb buried into smooth white mounds, one set of tire tracks down the middle
The morning after a big one: cars buried to the mirrors and one set of tracks down the middle. A street like this is a closing, no debate. Photo, Fairfax, Virginia, January 2016: Jarek Tuszyński, CC BY 4.0

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