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Fargo, North Dakota, 11,484 students in 25 schools

Fargo Public School District 1 Snow Day Predictor

The odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings in Fargo, measured against Fargo's own big snow morning of 3.5 inches.

The next three school mornings

Will Fargo close tomorrow?

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

How Fargo calls a snow day

When the call comes

If made the morning of, by 6:00 a.m.

“However, at times, a decision the morning of a school day may need to be made to see what weather materializes overnight; if a decision is made in the morning, the decision will be made by 6:00 a.m.”
Source

How families hear

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

“If school is called off, parents will be contacted via the automated phone, email and text system based on the contact information supplied to the school office(s).”
School Cancellation Process - Fargo Public Schools

A 2 hour delay

On a delay morning every school starts 2 hours late.

“Schools start exactly two hours later than the usual time.”
Delay schedule

2 built in snow days

On the 2026 to 2027 calendar, listed as “Storm Makeup Day”.

“* If Storm Makeup is not needed, NS: Vacation Day”
Source

Remote learning days

Fargo has remote learning days in its winter plan.

“When schools are closed due to weather but classes are held via remote instruction, the following occurs: Staff and students transition to remote learning.”
Source

Making up a lost day

Storm makeup days on March 25 and May 21; if not needed they become days off.

“* If Storm Makeup is not needed, NS: Vacation Day”
Source

The 2026 to 2027 calendar

  • First day August 26, 2026
  • Winter break Dec 23 to Jan 1
  • Last day May 27, 2027
District calendar

Recent snow days

  • 2022 to 2023: 2 days. Used both built-in snow make-up days by mid December 2022.
    “With Fargo Public Schools canceling classes on Wednesday, Dec. 14, and again on Thursday due to bad weather, the district has now utilized the two snow make-up days that were built into the school calendar for the 2022-23 school year”
    News report

The board policy

“The decision to hold classes is based on the general weather conditions which exist for the majority of Fargo students.”
Board policy

Read from Fargo’s own pages on October 8, 2026; the district site is fargo.k12.nd.us.

Ten winters of school mornings

Fargo’s snow record

48.5inches of snow a winter
5.5school mornings a winter with 2 in of new snow or more
2with 4 in or more
3.5 ina big snow morning in Fargo: the top tenth of snowy school mornings

More 4 inch school mornings than 78% of the 123 North Dakota districts with a station record.

3.1Nov
15.1Dec
6.3Jan
8Feb
9.5Mar
Average snowfall by month, inches
  • Biggest day 9.7 in on December 29, 2019
  • Snowiest winter 2018 to 2019, 75.5 in
  • 6 in mornings 0.5 a winter
  • 1 in mornings 8.8 a winter

Measured at a NOAA weather station 2.4 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 North Dakota rule

How North Dakota counts a lost day

North Dakota requires at least 962.5 hours of instruction for elementary students and 1,050 hours for middle and high school students. When weather cancels or cuts short a day, only the lost hours have to be made up, and only if losing them would put the school under its yearly hours.

The North Dakota rules in the agency’s own words, and every North Dakota district

Next door

Districts near Fargo

DistrictSnow a winter4 in morningsBuilt in days
West Fargo Public School District 6West Fargo46.5 in1.31
Grand Forks Public School District 1Grand Forks56.5 in1.92
Jamestown Public School District 1Jamestown46.7 in2.12
Devils Lake Public School District 1Devils Lake2
Bismarck Public School District 1Bismarck50.2 in1.52
Belcourt Public School District 7Belcourt31.2 in1.3
The schools

25 schools

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

High

  • Fargo Davies High School
  • North High School
  • South High School
  • Dakota High School
  • Fargo 9-12 Virtual Academy

Middle

  • Discovery Middle School
  • Ben Franklin Middle School
  • Carl Ben Eielson Middle School

Elementary

  • Bennett Elementary School
  • Centennial Elementary School
  • Kennedy Elementary School
  • Ed Clapp Elementary School
  • Lewis and Clark Elementary School
  • Longfellow Elementary School
  • Horace Mann Roosevelt Elementary School
  • Clara Barton Hawthorne Elementary School
  • Lincoln Elementary School
  • Washington Elementary School
  • Eagles Elementary School
  • Jefferson Elementary School
  • McKinley Elementary School
  • Madison Elementary School
  • Explorer Academy
  • Fargo K-8 Virtual Academy

Other schools

  • Early Childhood Special Education School
Questions

Fargo snow day questions

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More winter

More for North Dakota 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.North Dakota winter forecastThe season ahead for North Dakota: 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.