As the first flakes of snow start to drift from the sky and a fluffy white blanket settles across the land, many students’ minds jump to the possibility of a snow day. Anticipation creates a buzz of excitement in the air as students plan their day off, hoping that the heavy snowfall will cancel school.
The feeling given by an upcoming snow day is one known by many students across the US. But have you ever wondered how these impromptu holidays started?
Forecasting a Snow Day
Weather-related cancellations, like snow days, are closures or delays of institutions due to inclement weather. When deciding whether or not to cancel school, the main factor is safety. Safety hazards caused by snowy weather, such as icy roads and freezing temperatures, may cause districts to decide that it is too dangerous for students to travel to school.
“There aren’t particular thresholds [like] if you get so many inches [of snow] it’s automatically closed,” Green Bay Area Schools Chief Operations Officer Josh Patchak said. “We really try to determine how hazardous the roadways are going to be, how dangerous is it for our kids.”
Decisions to close schools must be made as early and quickly as possible to give families time to plan for their kids to stay at home.
“We have briefings with the National Weather Service in the morning and in the afternoon and again in the early morning hours,” Patchak explained. “On a typical snow day, we meet with them at 9 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 a.m.”
The superintendent of a school district will make the final decision whether or not to close schools, and families will receive the official snow day notice by 5 a.m. or 5 p.m. the previous day.
A Snowy Start
The first snow day in the United States occurred in the early twentieth century in rural areas when heavy snowfall resulted in unsafe and dangerous road conditions. Later, the process for deciding a snow day was formalized, and new rules and guidelines were established. Different districts have their own rules regarding snow days.
Inclement weather changes from region to region in the United States, and depending on the local climate, schools may close when there are only a few inches of snow, while others may only close if there is more than seven inches of snow.
The MCPASD school district has three built-in inclement weather days. However, if all of these three snow days are used, future professional development days in March, April, and May, are turned into asynchronous work days exclusively for high schoolers. This has led many educators to question if snow days need to completely cancel learning outside of the classroom, as unplanned days off from school can affect teachers’ lessons.
Are Snow Days Melting Away?
Many countries and states have a minimum number of snow days built into their yearly calendar. If schools go over the minimum number of days, a common procedure is to extend school into the summer by a few days; but this might soon change. The implementation of remote learning, where students can complete assignments from teachers at home using technology and online learning resources, was thoroughly explored during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, most schools didn’t need to completely shut down operations — instead, students met with teachers and had classes online. This newly explored realm of virtual learning has led some to speculate that remote learning may replace snow days in the future.
Virtual instruction allows school districts to meet their required amount of hours of learning and instruction even when snow days cancel in-person school. Some districts, like the Green Bay Area Schools in Wisconsin, have abandoned snow days altogether for virtual learning.
Furthermore, according to a November 2020 EdWeek Research Center survey, many other districts are slowly moving towards the same policy: “39 percent of principals and district leaders say their district had converted snow days to remote learning days, and another 32 percent said their districts were considering the change.”
Despite these logistical changes, snow days will still exist. Even though schools may start to assign digital work during these days, snow days will continue to be a fond memory in the minds of generations to come.
