The forecast on Tuesday has the parents of students in North and East India wondering if the school will indeed be opened or closed tomorrow.
School Closed on Tuesday, September 8: It is an ongoing speculation as to whether or not the schools will be closed on Tuesday due to the heavy rainfall in several regions. Even though September 8 does not fall on any public holiday, it is possible for the school administrators to shut down the schools in case there is any heavy rainfall, flood, etc.
For now, no one has declared that all states would close down on September 8. The longer answer would highly depend on your location.
There are two particular areas that have been predicted by IMD to be at risk for Tuesday.
As per the current forecast released by the IMD, there is an expected occurrence of heavy rainfall in East Uttar Pradesh on 8th September. The weather warnings have been issued for Uttarakhand with predictions of thunderstorms and lightning in some areas.
The state of Uttarakhand needs special attention, as there are weather risks in this state. No holiday has been announced for the schools of Uttarakhand on September 8, and hence, no school should have any plans of shutting down their premises. There is always a possibility of school closure owing to rains, storms, lighting, and poor roads.
This becomes even more dynamic considering the fact that some districts have witnessed weather-related closure just a day before.
This arises one day after some regions had witnessed school closure due to weather on September 7. Nonetheless, authorities have not issued closure instructions for all schools in the state on September 8; schools and districts may take independent decisions based on weather conditions prevailing in the area.
According to forecasts from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), there would be thunderstorms with lightning and extremely heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places in Uttarakhand on both September 8 and September 9. Consequently, this keeps the state under continued weather alerts instead of a single-day alert. Students in districts witnessing rain, landslides, or waterlogging, like Nainital and Bageshwar, should monitor local government's announcements.
Classes in West Bengal will be operating normally on Tuesday, although there is always an element of uncertainty in the state's own forecasts.
There are no school holidays scheduled for September 8 in West Bengal, as it does not fall on any school holidays list for the state. The IMD, however, predicts that there will be heavy to very heavy rainfall in West Bengal until September 9.
But the weather prediction in a few other states on Tuesday is predicted to be comparatively peaceful, says the latest report by the IMD.
Till date, there have been no warnings about severe weather conditions from IMD in Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Rajasthan, and Jammu & Kashmir. As far as holidays are concerned, none have been declared for the above regions.
Bihar and Rajasthan belong to the above-mentioned category. The schools in Bihar will be open on September 8 because this date is not marked as a public holiday in Bihar and students will go to school as usual unless there is an announcement by the school regarding the cancellation of the classes. Rajasthan will have a regular school day because the date is not marked as a public holiday in Rajasthan for 2026.
First and foremost, an important point for Delhi-NCR parents: there is a genuine school closure that will take place but not due to weather, and not even tomorrow!
The Directorate of Education has made it clear that all schools in Delhi will be closed on Friday, September 11, in relation to the BRICS summit plans. Please do not confuse this closure with the one that takes place on September 8.
There is a common trend observed in most states that are currently under threat, and it is that the statewide holidays are rarely granted, although individual districts have the discretion of closing schools on account of their own circumstances.
This means that the district administration or the school itself may announce its own closure in case of any danger caused due to local circumstances. This, in turn, implies that even two schools in the same city in the same state can close down for different reasons.
Such a difference plays a critical role in planning the Tuesday morning schedule for the family.
It would be a mistake to assume that all schools will necessarily be closed tomorrow simply due to an alert from the weather forecasters, but at the same time, it would be an equally serious mistake to expect that the absence of any warnings about IMD in a particular state today means that such conditions will definitely not change during the night.
Because of this flexibility in the decision-making process, education administrators and local news reporting have always been unanimous in giving the same advice in each one of the states impacted.
One must consult the authorities in their district administration, local education departments, or the school itself, because the decision regarding holidays will vary depending on weather conditions prevailing locally. It is the best way to prevent oneself from a fruitless trip in bad weather to go through WhatsApp groups, emails, websites, or portals maintained by the schools.
The uncertainty surrounding this particular week isn't an isolated one since the scenario being experienced is part of a cycle of events that have occurred multiple times in northern and eastern India during this year’s monsoon season.
A week before the current uncertainty, uncertainty had already been experienced in the state of Himachal Pradesh where no state-wide holiday was declared for schools despite predictions of rains and yellow alerts issued for some districts within the state.
While both the states of Uttarakhand and West Bengal remain under constant weather advisories till September 9, rather than a one-day advisory, the next two days may see additional last-minute district-wise closures, rather than a clear-cut decision for the entire state.
However, for the remainder of the nation, including Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, and Rajasthan, Tuesday is expected to be a regular school day, provided that the conditions do not change dramatically after nightfall.
