Snow Day Predictor for Louisiana

Browse snow day predictions for all 48 cities in Louisiana. Select your city to check tomorrow's school closure forecast.

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

About Louisiana

Louisiana sits in the Deep South's Gulf Coast corner, bordered by Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, Texas to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. It became the 18th state on April 30, 1812, and is home to roughly 4.6 million people, according to the latest Census Bureau estimate. Its nickname, the Pelican State, comes from the brown pelican on the state flag and seal. The state's economy runs on oil and gas, with refineries and petrochemical plants lining the Mississippi River corridor from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast beyond. Sugarcane, rice, shrimp, and crawfish drive its agriculture and seafood industries, and New Orleans tourism adds a third leg. Winter splits the state in two: Shreveport in the north sees occasional cold snaps and light snow, while the Gulf Coast almost never does. That gap is what makes Louisiana's snow day predictions worth tracking. A state built for hurricane season, not blizzards, keeps almost no cold-weather road equipment, so a light dusting or a coat of ice on a bridge can shut schools down for days. Southern Louisiana proved in January 2025 how disruptive a truly rare storm can get.

Louisiana Snow Day Climate and School Closures

How Louisiana's Climate Affects Snow Days

Louisiana's snow follows a sharp north-south divide. Shreveport averages a measurable snowfall roughly once every other year, with its heaviest storm dumping 11 inches in December 1929. New Orleans and the Gulf Coast typically go years, sometimes decades, without any snow at all, which is what made January 2025 so extraordinary.

On January 21, 2025, New Orleans' official weather station recorded 8.0 inches of snow, its snowiest day on record since 1948, shattering the previous mark of 2.7 inches set in 1963. (NOAA Climate.gov)

What Causes School Closures in Louisiana

Ice, not snow depth, decides most Louisiana school closures. The state has almost no cold-weather road equipment, and its highway system leans on bridges and overpasses crossing bayous and wetlands. A quarter inch of ice on one of those elevated spans can strand traffic and force closures that a few inches of snow never would.

Explore Snow Day Predictions Across Louisiana

Louisiana has 48 cities covered by the Snow Day Predictor. Predictions are updated hourly using real-time weather data from Open-Meteo.

Popular Cities to Check in Louisiana

New Orleans. New Orleans is Louisiana's largest metro and rarely sees snow at all. On January 21, 2025, its airport station recorded 8.0 inches, the most snow ever measured there and its snowiest day since 1948.

Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge, the state capital, sits along the Mississippi River and is home to LSU. The January 2025 storm dropped about 8 inches on the city, its heaviest snowfall in 85 years.

Shreveport. Shreveport, in the northwest corner near the Texas and Arkansas lines, sees Louisiana's most routine winter weather. Its heaviest snowstorm dropped 11 inches in December 1929, and measurable snow falls about once every other year.

Lafayette. Lafayette anchors Cajun country in south-central Louisiana. Like most of the Gulf Coast, it rarely sees snow, but the January 2025 storm still coated the city, prompting widespread closures across Acadiana.

Lake Charles. Lake Charles sits in the southwest corner near the Texas line and hosts its own NWS forecast office. Petrochemical plants along the Calcasieu Ship Channel mean winter road icing is a serious closure risk here.

Monroe. Monroe, in the northeast, falls under NWS Shreveport's coverage and sees more of the occasional winter cold snaps typical of north Louisiana than the near-snowless Gulf Coast to the south.

Frequently Asked Questions About Snow Days in Louisiana

Does it ever snow in New Orleans?

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Rarely, but it happens. New Orleans typically goes years without measurable snow, and many winters bring none at all. That changed on January 21, 2025, when the city's official airport station recorded 8.0 inches, its snowiest day since record-keeping began in 1948. Outside of that storm, expect New Orleans winters to stay in the 40s and 50s Fahrenheit with rain, not snow.

What part of Louisiana gets the most snow?

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Northern Louisiana, especially around Shreveport, sees Louisiana's most routine winter weather because it sits closer to the cold air masses that reach east Texas and Arkansas. Shreveport's heaviest storm on record dropped 11 inches in December 1929. Southern Louisiana, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and the coast, almost never gets snow, which is what made the January 2025 storm so unusual.

What actually closes Louisiana schools in winter?

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Mostly caution, not capacity. Louisiana districts rarely have the equipment or experience to handle winter weather safely, so many call closures a day ahead once forecasters flag any wintry mix, rather than waiting to see what falls. Coastal parishes near New Orleans and Baton Rouge tend to close faster than northern parishes near Shreveport, where administrators handle cold snaps more often and wait longer before deciding.

How rare was the January 2025 snowstorm for New Orleans?

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Extremely rare. The 8.0 inches recorded at New Orleans' airport station on January 21, 2025 broke that station's previous snow record of 2.7 inches, set in 1963, and gave the city its snowiest day since NWS records began there in 1948. It was part of a wider Gulf Coast storm that also brought rare snow to Texas, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle.

Does Louisiana have snow plows or road salt?

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Very little. Louisiana's DOTD keeps limited supplies of salt and sand for bridges and interstates in the northern parishes, but the state does not maintain a snowplow fleet like northern states do. When ice or snow hits, especially in the south, crews focus on treating bridges and overpasses first since those refreeze fastest and pose the greatest crash risk.

What's Louisiana's overall climate like outside of rare winter storms?

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Subtropical and humid. Summers are long, hot, and wet; winters are short and mild, with January highs typically in the 60s across the south and cooler in the north. Hurricane season, not winter storms, is Louisiana's dominant weather threat, which is part of why the state has so little cold-weather infrastructure and why rare snow events cause outsized disruption.