SnowDayMeter

Snow day calculator Colorado

Chance of a snow day
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Best time to check

The evening before, after 9 pm
The evening model runs are in by then and the forecast here refreshes every 30 minutes. A number read at 6 pm can move by several inches of snow before midnight.
The morning of, 5 to 7 am
The strip above shades 4 to 7 am. Snow still falling in those hours lands on the commute, so the model counts it extra, and most districts have decided by the time the buses roll at 7.

When districts actually decide

Every district sets its own cut-off; these are published examples, not a rule.

Colorado schools usually close around 5 inches of overnight snow. Front Range districts ride out moderate snow; closures come with heavy overnight totals, wind and deep cold. The meter below opens on Denver; type your ZIP or town and it reads tonight's hourly forecast for your exact spot and scores it against the Colorado threshold.

How much snow it takes in Colorado

Denver's snow comes in big March dumps and small frequent ones, and Front Range districts ride out most of them. The Stapleton station that carries Denver's normals averages 49 inches a season over 15.9 days with an inch or more, and March, not January, is the snowiest month. Colorado Springs averages 32.5 inches and Grand Junction, on the Western Slope, 17.7.

The model sets Colorado at 5 inches overnight, and even that is not enough on its own. What closes Denver Public Schools and its neighbours is a heavy overnight total that is still falling at bus time, with wind, on a morning of deep cold. The 14 March 2024 storm, forecast at up to 16 inches in Denver, had districts across the Front Range announcing closures the night before. A dry 5-inch snowfall that ends at midnight on a 20-degree morning is often just a late start.

CDOT runs about 675 plows over 23,000 lane miles, by its own 2012 figures, so the interstates and highways are usually open; the limit is the side streets and the mountain districts' bus routes.

Colorado winter by the numbers

StationSnow per seasonDays with 1″+Days with 3″+Snowiest month
Colorado Springs32.5″11.02.8Mar
Grand Junction17.7″6.01.0Dec
Denver (Stapleton)49.0″15.94.7Mar

1991-2020 climate normals for the airport or first-order station in each city, read 2026-10-10 from the NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals. “Days with 3″+” is the average number of calendar days a year with at least 3 inches of new snow. Denver's figures are from the Stapleton station, which NOAA uses for the city's normals; Denver International Airport has no published snow normal.

How closures are decided in Colorado

Colorado counts hours, not days. A district must plan 1,080 hours of teacher-pupil instruction and contact for secondary pupils and 990 for elementary, and no school may be in session for fewer than 160 days without the commissioner's specific prior approval (C.R.S. 22-32-109). The statute then allows those hours to be reduced for conferences, in-service and closings for health, safety or welfare, but only down to 1,056 and 968 hours. That is a built-in allowance of 24 secondary and 22 elementary hours, roughly three to four school days, before any snow day has to be made up.

The state education department's own remote-learning guidance could not be read when we checked, so we describe district practice instead. Jeffco Public Schools said in October 2020 that it could use fully remote learning for weather days, and Denver Public Schools said in March 2021 that a short severe-weather event gets a traditional snow day with no remote learning, with a pivot to remote from the second day of an extended storm. The 178 regular districts each set their own rule.

Minimum school year
1,080 secondary / 990 elementary hours; at least 160 days (C.R.S. 22-32-109)
Built-in allowance
Hours may drop to 1,056 / 968 for closures without make-up
Remote snow days
District policy; Denver keeps a traditional snow day for short storms
Regular districts
178 (NCES, 2021-22)

Questions people ask

How much snow does it take to close Denver schools?
More than people expect. Denver averages 4.7 days a year with 3 inches or more and 1.7 days with 5 inches or more, and most of those are school days. The closures come with storms like 14 March 2024, forecast at up to 16 inches and still falling in the morning. The model's 5-inch threshold is where the chance starts to climb, not a guarantee.
Do Colorado schools have to make up snow days?
Not the first few. The law lets planned hours fall by 24 (secondary) or 22 (elementary) for closures and conferences before the district drops below its floor. Past that, hours have to come from somewhere, and a district cannot go under 160 days without the commissioner's approval.
Does Denver do remote learning on snow days?
Denver Public Schools said in 2021 that a short storm gets a traditional snow day, with no in-person or remote learning, and that remote learning starts from the second day of an extended closure. Jeffco adopted remote weather days in 2020. Check your own district; the meter predicts the closure, not the format.
Why is March the snowiest month in Denver?
Upslope storms. Spring systems pull moist air west into the Front Range, where it rises and dumps, so Denver's normals peak at 8.8 inches in March against 6.4 in January. The meter treats a March storm exactly like a January one; the calendar does not change the threshold.

Sources

The closure threshold itself is our model's estimate from typical district practice, not an official figure. Districts, not states, make the call. The model page shows every term.

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