School Closing Outlooks For Monday 01/26/2026 & Tuesday 01/27/2026

Jonah Drake (Owner & Co-Founder)
16 hours ago
4 min read

Updated: 2 minutes ago

Day 1 School Closing Outlook Results

www.WestMichiganWeather.net/closings

Forecast Results Issued: Monday, January 26, 2026, 10:01 AM EST

Here is the comparison of our outlook from last night vs. actual closings and delays this morning. Overall, the southern half of our risk area did very well and actually over-performed a bit within the Elevated and Medium risk zones along US-12 and I-69. We did not see any closings or delays up north in Muskegon, Oceana, or Mason Counties, as snow did not really materialize there, nor did we see any closings due to poor secondary road conditions in the Minscule Risk areas, as expected.

Day 1 School Closing Outlook Update

www.WestMichiganWeather.net/closings

Forecast Update Issued: Sunday, January 25, 2026, 6:27 PM EST

Forecasters: Jonah Drake

Have made the decision to pull the trigger on upgrading and expanding some of the risk area this evening.

An "Extreme" risk is now in place for far southeast Branch County, all of Hillsdale County, and much of southeast Jackson County. Many of our Hillsdale and Jackson County schools are already closing for Monday, and a couple of the US-12 corridor schools are closing as well, so we have opted to expand the previous "Elevated" risk along the entire US-12 corridor instead of having it confined only to Berrien County.

The MIDrive map on the Michigan Department of Transportation website continues to show poor travel conditions across the area with the greatest impacts evident along and southeast of the I-69 corridor.

With snow expected along the lakeshore overnight, especially in Southwestern Michigan, we feel comfortable leaving the prior "Likely" risk in place.

Further north, significant uncertainty remains about the condition of secondary roadway conditions, so while we aren't expecting any significant closures outside of our lakeshore area, we also can't rule them out, given how harsh the last week of winter weather has been.

See previous discussion for additional details.

Day 1 School Closing Outlook

www.WestMichiganWeather.net/closings

Forecast Valid: Monday, January 26, 2026

Forecast Issued: Sunday, January 25, 2026, 3:01 PM EST

Forecasters: Jonah Drake

Summary:

There is a “Likely” risk of school closings, delays, and/or early dismissals on Monday as a result of continued lake-effect snow and bitter cold.

Discussion:

Even after many students across our area had a full week of school closings last week due to the impactful winter weather, yet another day with very apparent snow day potential is squarely in the forecast for Monday morning.

This is a lower-confidence, two-fold type threat. The primary, more obvious threat is from lake-effect snow across the far southwestern part of our area, especially in Berrien County, where our highest probabilities are currently in place.

An upgrade to a Winter Storm Warning has come out for Berrien County this afternoon. By morning, an additional 3-6 inches of snow with locally higher amounts appears probable and will be supported by snowfall rates of 1, to 2, inches per hour at times overnight tonight. These totals, and the rate at which these totals accumulate, will make it difficult for road crews to have any real effect on roadway conditions, especially secondary roads, which will likely support, at least, scattered school closings in this region.

Further north and east, we anticipate generalized accumulations of 1-4 inches with some locally higher amounts possible, especially along the lakeshore. A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect for Ottawa, Allegan, Van Buren, Cass, and St. Joseph Counties through tomorrow morning. Isolated to scattered closings appear possible in these areas as well.

In addition to the snow, wind chills area-wide tomorrow will likely fall to values below zero and could reach as low as -20°F between US-31/I-196 and US-131. This will further support the risk for a few additional closures or delays, though confidence in this scenario is lower because temperatures and wind chills are expected to improve through the day.