Enter your city, ZIP code, or Canadian postal code below to check tonight’s snow day chance. Choose your school type, public, private, K–12, or college and university, since each closes under different conditions.Will School Be Closed Tomorrow? SnowDay Predictor and Calculator
Snow Day Predictor Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) made a closure decision worth knowing about before you check tonight's chances: on a documented storm day, MPS closed pre-K through fifth grade fully while shifting middle and high school students to e-learning, and its call did not match the one St. Paul made for the same storm, even though the two districts sit right next to each other.
A documented split-grade closure
During a March 2026 storm that dropped more than 8 inches of snow on the Twin Cities, Minneapolis Public Schools cancelled in-person classes for pre-K through fifth grade entirely, while middle and high school students were required to attend virtually as an e-learning day, according to the Star Tribune . St. Paul Public Schools, for the same storm, cancelled classes entirely for all students with no e-learning option, according to CBS News Minnesota .
MPS's real, published e-learning trigger system
Minneapolis Public Schools' own severe weather guidance explains the actual mechanism behind a split-grade response: e-learning days for grades 6 through 12 begin after two weather-related cancellations in a school year, while e-learning days for pre-K through grade 5 begin after three, according to MPS's own district announcement . That means a documented split, younger grades getting a full day off while older grades shift to e-learning, is often simply a function of how many cancellations the district has already used that year for each grade band, not a fixed preference for treating age groups differently. Treat any one storm's split as a data point tied to that season's cancellation count, not a guaranteed pattern for the next storm.
Minnesota law also sets different minimum instructional-hour requirements by grade band under Minnesota Statute 120A.41: roughly 425 hours for half-day kindergarten (850 hours for all-day kindergarten), 935 hours for grades 1 through 6, and 1,020 hours for grades 7 through 12. Districts track e-learning day use separately under Statute 120A.414. These hour requirements are the broader backdrop MPS's cancellation-count system operates within, not a separate explanation on their own.
How MPS actually decides, and by when
MPS's own severe weather page describes a real process: the district continually monitors National Weather Service forecasts, convenes a severe weather meeting including Transportation, Operations, Communications, the Superintendent's Office, Athletics, and Community Education, and consults with neighboring districts before the superintendent makes a final call, according to Minneapolis Public Schools . A separate district announcement confirms the decision deadline: no later than 5:30 a.m.
MPS also keeps students indoors for recess once wind chill reaches 0°F or colder, a separate, lower-stakes threshold from a full closure decision.
The −35°F wind chill benchmark: a reported figure, not an MPS-published one
Minneapolis Public Schools' own official pages describe the decision process above but do not themselves publish a specific wind chill number for closures. CBS News Minnesota reported in January 2026 that St. Paul's threshold, a forecast wind chill of -35°F or colder at 6 a.m., is also followed by several other Twin Cities-area districts, including Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, Shakopee, and Minneapolis. Treat -35°F as a reported benchmark for Minneapolis specifically, sourced to CBS's reporting rather than to an MPS-published document, until a current primary MPS source confirms the exact number directly.
Real events back the broader extreme-cold pattern. In January 2025, Minneapolis Public Schools, St. Paul Public Schools, and Anoka-Hennepin, one of Minnesota's largest districts, all announced closures for the same day as wind chills were forecast near -35°F in the Twin Cities metro and -45°F in Greater Minnesota , according to Bring Me The News.
Minneapolis vs. St. Paul: Same Storm, Different Calls
| Event | Minneapolis Public Schools | St. Paul Public Schools |
|---|---|---|
| March 2026 (8+ inch snowstorm) |
Pre-K to 5th: full closure. Middle/high: e-learning day. |
Full closure, all grades, no e-learning. |
| January 2025 (extreme cold) | Closed, alongside St. Paul and Anoka-Hennepin. | Closed, alongside Minneapolis and Anoka-Hennepin. |
Does Minneapolis always close when St. Paul does?
No. The two districts make independent decisions and made different decisions during at least one documented storm, Minneapolis running an e-learning day for older students while St. Paul cancelled entirely. Always check both districts separately if you have students in both.
Why does Minneapolis sometimes only close for younger grades?
MPS's own guidance ties this to a cancellation-count system: e-learning for grades 6 to 12 begins after two weather cancellations in a school year, and for pre-K through grade 5 after three. A split response often reflects where the district sits against that count for the season, not a fixed policy of treating age groups differently.
What wind chill closes Minneapolis Public Schools?
CBS News Minnesota has reported Minneapolis follows the same benchmark as several other Twin Cities-area districts, a forecast wind chill of -35°F or colder at 6 a.m. This figure comes from CBS's reporting, not a number MPS itself currently publishes; see our wind chill school closures page for how this compares to Duluth's and St. Paul's own published thresholds.
●Minneapolis Public Schools, “Severe Weather” official district page
●Minneapolis Public Schools, “Review severe weather protocols” district announcement
●Star Tribune, “Twin Cities schools cancel classes, virtual learning for snow day,” March 2026
●CBS News Minnesota, “Minnesota schools announce closures amid extreme cold,” January 2026
●Minnesota Statute 120A.41 (instructional hour requirements by grade band, including all-day kindergarten)
●Minnesota Statute 120A.414 (e-learning day provisions)
●Bring Me The News, Minnesota extreme cold school closure list, January 2025
Related reading: How wind chill alone can close schools, and other Minnesota predictor pages: St. Paul, Duluth, and Anoka-Hennepin. For the full model behind this score, see our methodology, try the manual snow day calculator, or browse the state and province closure guide for more regional context.
Ready to check your own city? Try the live SnowDay Score predictor on the homepage for a real-time closure probability.