South Dakota Snow Day Calculator: Chances & Closure Norms
What closes South Dakota schools? Snowday's South Dakota calculator typically flags a snow day at about 4–6 inches of snow — but blizzard wind and wind chills near −25 °F close schools even at lower totals. Lead averages about 200 inches a year. Enter your ZIP above for tomorrow's chance.
Snow day calculator
Free, instant, no sign-up. US ZIP codes and cities.
Result
Your forecast appears here. Enter a ZIP code or city above and press Calculate snow day chance.
Fun estimate only — always follow your school district’s official announcements.
How South Dakota districts decide snow days
The usual trigger is 4 to 6 inches of snow with wind, or any system prompting Blizzard Warnings from the National Weather Service in Aberdeen or Sioux Falls. When interstates close — I-29 in the east, I-90 across the state — rural districts close with them because buses cannot run.
Black Hills districts (Rapid City, Spearfish, Lead) are more tolerant of pure snowfall, given local equipment, but close readily for the region’s notorious spring upslope storms, which can drop a foot on Rapid City while Milesville, 100 miles east, gets sun. Cold closures near −25 °F wind chill round out the winter.
Average snowfall in South Dakota
| Place | Avg. snow per year |
|---|---|
| Sioux Falls | ≈ 45 in/yr |
| Aberdeen | ≈ 46 in/yr |
| Lead (Black Hills) | ≈ 200 in/yr |
Averages are approximate NOAA/NCEI 1991–2020 climate normals, rounded; Lead’s figure is a long-term local average — among the highest for any U.S. town outside Alaska’s mountains.
The storm South Dakota remembers
Winter Storm Atlas, October 2013. In early October 2013, Winter Storm Atlas buried western South Dakota under as much as two feet of wet, heavy snow with 70 mph gusts — before trees had dropped their leaves. The storm killed tens of thousands of cattle and closed Black Hills schools for days, a reminder that in South Dakota, winter does not wait for the calendar.
Using the calculator in South Dakota
Snowday scores South Dakota with a 5-inch baseline and meaningful wind and cold bonuses for plains blizzard conditions. Open the snow day calculator, enter ZIP 57101 for Sioux Falls, and check tomorrow’s chance. For the full picture, open the snow day calculator and see how commute-hour snowfall, cold, and wind combine into tomorrow’s percent chance — free, instant, no sign-up.
Last updated: October 2026