Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Orange County Schools and Chatham County Schools will all be closed on Monday, Mar. 16, due to forecasted hazardous weather conditions.
The trio of local school districts sent out alerts to their families on Sunday night to share their decisions and warn of the impending weather.
“Monday’s weather forecast calls for the moderate risk of severe storms, including the possibility of widespread damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes in the late morning through early evening,” the CHCCS release read. “Even if we decided to open schools and dismiss early, the timing would potentially put students and staff in harm’s way, and that’s a risk we’ve decided not to take.”
“We have stayed in close contact with local authorities,” said the Orange County Schools district, “and we have decided to close so that all motorists – buses, student drivers, families, staff, our whole community – can avoid any potential for traveling in conditions that may deteriorate during the day with little time to adjust. Please remember that safety is our highest priority, and we take every situation that affects safety very seriously.”
All three districts added that Monday will not be a remote learning day for students, but will act as an optional remote teacher work day for staff. Despite adverse winter weather causing several days of cancellations and remote learning earlier in 2026, none of the districts are anticipating needing to make up the missed hours based on their current banked time within their calendars.
A briefing from the National Weather Service’s Raleigh office went into more detail on the timing and location of Monday’s weather, which puts the Piedmont into a Risk Level 4 out of 5 — the highest risk from a thunderstorm since 2021.
“A strong cold front will sweep across the region Monday,” the NWS Sunday briefing said. “Widespread thunderstorms are expected. Although a few strong to severe thunderstorms could develop during the morning hours, the primary and greatest thunderstorm threats are expected during the afternoon into the early evening hours, with that timing trending earlier west and later east.”
After school activities and athletics have been either cancelled or postponed for all districts, including the scheduled “Our Schools, Our Future: Community Conversations” session planned by CHCCS.
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