Snow Day Predictor for California

Browse snow day predictions for all 331 cities in California. Select your city to check tomorrow's school closure forecast.

Every city below links to its own live snow day forecast for California. Find your city in the alphabetical list and click it to check today's snowfall probability and school closure forecast.

About California

California sits on the Pacific coast of the American West, bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and Mexico to the south. It became the 31st state on September 9, 1850, admitted directly without ever being a territory, and today it is home to roughly 39.4 million people according to the latest Census Bureau estimate, more than any other state by a wide margin. The state's economy runs on technology, agriculture, entertainment, and tourism, industries that have little to do with snow removal budgets. Its nickname, the Golden State, traces back to the 1849 Gold Rush and the golden brown hills that cover much of the landscape for most of the year, not to anything resembling a New England winter. For the vast majority of Californians, from San Diego to San Francisco to Sacramento, winter means rain, if anything at all, under a Mediterranean or desert climate that rarely dips below freezing at the surface. That is what makes snow day forecasting in California a genuinely split job. A single storm system can close schools in a mountain town while never touching the thermometer eighty miles away, which means a statewide prediction has to account for elevation as much as it accounts for the calendar.

California Snow Day Climate and School Closures

How California's Climate Affects Snow Days

California does not have one winter, it has dozens. Truckee, in the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe, averages 206.6 inches of snow a year. Los Angeles and San Diego average close to none most winters. Both are technically the same state.

In the winter of 1846 to 1847, a group of pioneers known as the Donner Party became trapped by heavy snow near what is now Donner Pass, unable to cross the Sierra Nevada until spring. The pass still carries their name, and it still closes for snow most winters.

What Causes School Closures in California

Pacific storms slam into the Sierra Nevada and get forced upward, dropping enormous amounts of snow before the air ever reaches the far side. Most of California's population lives west or south of that wall and rarely sees the results directly, even though the same storm system is burying a mountain town two hours away.

Explore Snow Day Predictions Across California

California has 331 cities covered by the Snow Day Predictor. Predictions are updated hourly using real-time weather data from Open-Meteo.

Popular Cities to Check in California

South Lake Tahoe. Sits at about 6,237 feet on the California side of Lake Tahoe and falls under the Reno forecast office's area. Highway 50 through town regularly sees chain controls once Sierra storms move in.

Mammoth Lakes. Home to Mammoth Mountain, which averages around 400 inches of snow a year and has the highest summit of any California ski resort at 11,053 feet. Winter storms here can close Highway 203 and strand the town for hours.

Mount Shasta. This small Siskiyou County city sits at 3,586 feet, just miles from the 14,179-foot volcano it's named for, and averages close to 103 inches of snow a year as moisture is forced up and over the peak.

Susanville. The Lassen County seat sits at 4,186 feet in the high desert northeast of the Sierra. Its heaviest single season on record dumped 114 inches back in 1937, and mornings below freezing are routine all winter.

Redding. At the northern tip of the Central Valley where Interstate 5 starts climbing into the Cascades, Redding itself sees snow rarely, but it's the last low-elevation stop before drivers hit the Siskiyou Summit chain-control zone.

Bakersfield. Almost never sees snow, but winter here still closes roads for a different reason, tule fog. Highway 99 through the southern Central Valley has a long history of multi-car pileups when the fog drops visibility to near zero.

Frequently Asked Questions About Snow Days in California

Does snow in California actually shut down major roads, not just schools?

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Regularly. Interstate 80 over Donner Summit gets chain controls or full closures multiple times most winters, and Caltrans treats it as routine mountain weather rather than a rare event, even though it can strand holiday travelers for hours.

Is snow only a Northern California thing?

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No. Big Bear Lake, in the San Bernardino Mountains barely two hours from Los Angeles, averages close to 59 inches of snow a year. Elevation matters more than latitude here.

Why does California's snow forecast seem to change so much from year to year?

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El Nino and La Nina cycles swing California's winters hard. An El Nino year tends to push wetter, heavier storms into the state, while La Nina years often run drier, and the Sierra snowpack can look completely different from one winter to the next as a result.

Has California ever recorded truly extreme snow depths, not just heavy annual totals?

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Yes. A weather station at Tamarack, in Alpine County near Kirkwood, recorded a snow depth of 451 inches, 37.5 feet, in March 1911, among the deepest snow depths ever measured in North America. The same station logged 884 inches of snow for the 1906 to 1907 season, a California seasonal record.

Does fog cause winter closures in California even where it never snows?

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It does, regularly. Tule fog forms across the Central Valley in winter and has caused some of the state's deadliest pileups, including a 108-vehicle crash on Highway 99 near Fresno on November 3, 2007, that killed two people and injured 39 in visibility as low as 200 feet.

Which mountain highways close most often for snow?

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Interstate 5 over the Siskiyou Summit near the Oregon border and Interstate 80 over Donner Summit both close or go to chain control multiple times most winters. Highway 89 around Lake Tahoe and Highway 203 into Mammoth Lakes see frequent chain requirements as well.