SnowDayMeter

Snow day calculator Ohio

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.

Ohio schools usually close around 4 inches of overnight snow. Four inches overnight or a wind chill warning; Cleveland's snow belt tolerates more. The meter below opens on Columbus; type your ZIP or town and it reads tonight's hourly forecast for your exact spot and scores it against the Ohio threshold.

How much snow it takes in Ohio

Ohio runs from a snow belt to a river valley. Cleveland averages 63.8 inches a season and 6.3 days with 3 inches or more, Youngstown 67.8 inches, Akron-Canton 47.2, Toledo 37.4, while Columbus averages 28.2 inches with 2.2 such days and Dayton 25. January is the snowiest month everywhere in the state. The model's 4-inch threshold is a Columbus and Dayton number; the Lake Erie snow belt east of Cleveland plows through that before breakfast and closes for lake-effect bands and wind chill instead.

Winter Storm Fern in late January 2026 was the central Ohio reference: about a foot of snow on the ground closed Columbus-area schools on Monday the 26th, and Columbus City Schools were still closed on Wednesday the 28th, a third straight day, with wind chills to -25. Up north, Cleveland and Akron closed for two days after 15 to 20 inches fell on 17 January 2022, which is the kind of total it takes there.

The state transportation department fields 1,629 trucks over nearly 44,000 lane miles and aims to have highways recovered within two hours of a storm's end, a goal it reported meeting 98 percent of the time.

Ohio winter by the numbers

StationSnow per seasonDays with 1″+Days with 3″+Snowiest month
Cleveland63.8″19.56.3Jan
Columbus28.2″8.82.2Jan
Dayton25.0″7.81.8Jan
Toledo37.4″11.93.5Jan
Akron-Canton47.2″16.43.5Jan
Youngstown67.8″22.16.1Jan

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.

How closures are decided in Ohio

Ohio counts hours rather than days: 455 for half-day kindergarten, 910 for full-day kindergarten through grade 6 and 1,001 for grades 7 to 12, per the Education Commission of the States' 2023 survey; the Revised Code pages themselves were not reachable when we checked, so the survey is cited. Because the requirement is hours, most districts schedule more than the minimum, and a calamity day, the statute's term for a closure for hazardous weather or another emergency, simply draws down that surplus. We could not read an official statement of how many surplus hours districts typically carry.

Beyond the surplus, the make-up route is the online plan under R.C. 3313.482, the successor to the blizzard bag: students complete lessons posted online or on paper, up to the equivalent of three school days a year, and the plan requires the written consent of the teachers' union. We cite that through a district policy that quotes the statute, since the state's own page was blocked. The same policy, typical of Ohio's 618 regular districts, puts the closure decision with the superintendent.

Minimum school year
910 hours K-6, 1,001 hours grades 7-12 (Education Commission of the States, 2023)
Calamity days
Absorbed by hours scheduled above the minimum
Online make-up
Up to 3 days' equivalent under R.C. 3313.482, with teachers' union consent
Regular districts
618 (NCES, 2021-22)

Questions people ask

How many calamity days do Ohio schools get?
There is no fixed number any more. Ohio requires hours, 910 for kindergarten through grade 6 and 1,001 for grades 7 to 12, so a district that schedules more than the minimum can close until the surplus is gone. After that it can use up to three days' worth of online make-up under R.C. 3313.482, then it adds days.
What is a blizzard bag day?
The old name for Ohio's online make-up plan. Under R.C. 3313.482 students complete lessons posted online or sent home on paper, the time counts toward the hours, and a district may use it for the equivalent of three school days a year. The plan needs the teachers' union's written consent.
Does Cleveland close on 4 inches?
No. Cleveland averages 19.5 days a year with an inch or more and 6.3 days with 3 inches or more, and the snow belt east of the city sees more still. The closures there come with totals like the 15 to 20 inches of 17 January 2022, or with a Lake Effect Snow Warning and deep wind chill for the morning.
What closed Columbus schools for three days in January 2026?
Winter Storm Fern: about a foot of snow on the ground on Monday 26 January, then wind chills to -25 on the Wednesday. The meter would have scored the overnight total, the snow still on side streets, the Winter Storm Warning and the wind chill at bus time on each of those mornings.

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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