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Grand Forks, North Dakota, 7,572 students in 18 schools

Grand Forks Public School District 1 Snow Day Predictor

The odds of a closing or a delay on the next three school mornings in Grand Forks, measured against Grand Forks's own big snow morning of 3.2 inches.

The next three school mornings

Will Grand Forks close tomorrow?

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

How Grand Forks calls a snow day

When the call comes

As early as possible; family calls typically go out between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m.

“Typically, this automated call will occur to staff between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and families between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.”
Source

How families hear

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

“GFPS will be using our automated calling system to call staff and families if school is delayed or canceled due to severe weather conditions. Typically, this automated call will occur to staff between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., and families between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.”
School Cancellation and Postponement Procedures - Grand Forks Public Schools

A 2 hour delay

On a delay morning every school starts 2 hours late.

“Delay the start time in all schools by two (2) hours based on each school’s start time”
Delay schedule

2 built in snow days

On the 2026 to 2027 calendar, listed as “storm days”.

“TWO (2) STORM DAYS ARE BUILT INTO THE DISTRICT CALENDAR.”
Source

Remote learning days

Grand Forks has remote learning days in its winter plan.

“FOLLOWING THE USE OF THE TWO (2) STORM DAYS, THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WILL SHIFT TO REMOTE LEARNING AS A RESULT OF WEATHER OR OTHER CONDITIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH STATE LAW.”
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

The board policy

“If a full-day cancellation leads to a third storm day during this school year, GFPS will transition to remote learning.”
Board policy

Read from Grand Forks’s own pages on October 8, 2026; the district site is gfschools.org.

Ten winters of school mornings

Grand Forks’s snow record

56.5inches of snow a winter
4.7school mornings a winter with 2 in of new snow or more
1.9with 4 in or more
3.2 ina big snow morning in Grand Forks: the top tenth of snowy school mornings
31.5school mornings a winter at 0 F or colder

More 4 inch school mornings than 73% of the 123 North Dakota districts with a station record.

5.2Nov
16.2Dec
8.4Jan
9.1Feb
7.7Mar
Average snowfall by month, inches
  • Biggest day 11 in on April 12, 2022
  • Snowiest winter 2022 to 2023, 85.2 in
  • 6 in mornings 1 a winter
  • 1 in mornings 7.9 a winter

Measured at a NOAA weather station 3.5 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 Grand Forks

DistrictSnow a winter4 in morningsBuilt in days
West Fargo Public School District 6West Fargo46.5 in1.31
Fargo Public School District 1Fargo48.5 in22
Devils Lake Public School District 1Devils Lake2
Jamestown Public School District 1Jamestown46.7 in2.12
Belcourt Public School District 7Belcourt31.2 in1.3
Bismarck Public School District 1Bismarck50.2 in1.52
The schools

18 schools

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

High

  • Red River High School
  • Central High School
  • Community Alternative High School

Middle

  • Schroeder Middle School
  • South Middle School
  • Valley Middle School
  • Nathan Twining Middle School, Grand Forks AFB

Elementary

  • Discovery Elementary School
  • J Nelson Kelly Elementary School
  • Century Elementary School
  • Lake Agassiz Elementary School
  • Ben Franklin Elementary School
  • Viking Elementary School
  • Phoenix Elementary School
  • Winship Elementary School
  • Nathan Twining Elementary School, Grand Forks AFB
  • Wilder Elementary School
  • Lewis and Clark Elementary School
Questions

Grand Forks 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.