What inclement weather means, what counts and who gets paid

Inclement weather means weather severe enough to disrupt normal activity or make travel unsafe: heavy snow and ice, extreme cold, heavy rain and flooding, thunderstorms, high winds or extreme heat. It is not an official weather alert. Each school district, employer or airline decides for itself what qualifies, which is why the same storm closes one district and not the next. The word is spelled inclement (in-KLEM-ent), not "inclimate".

How do you spell and pronounce inclement?

Cambridge Dictionary gives the pronunciation as /ɪnˈklem.ənt/, stress on the second syllable, with /ˈɪn.klə.mənt/ as a second American form, and defines inclement weather as weather that is "unpleasant, especially with cold wind and rain." The word comes from the Latin inclemens: in- (not) plus clemens (mild or merciful). It has nothing to do with climate. "Inclimate" is a misspelling, and Cambridge Dictionary has no entry for it.

Is inclement weather an official term?

No. The National Weather Service issues watches, warnings and advisories for specific hazards, and its glossary has no entry for "inclement" at all. The term belongs to schools, employers and contracts, and each decides what qualifies. The weather that closes schools in Georgia is a normal Tuesday in Minnesota, and both districts call it inclement. To know what it means for you, read the policy that used the word: a good one ties it to something measurable, such as an NWS warning.

What counts as inclement weather?

Each hazard below has a matching NWS alert that makes a defensible trigger. Some thresholds are national; others are set by each forecast office, so the table uses the Chicago and Twin Cities offices as examples. Where a row says "set locally", your own NWS office publishes its numbers on its page at weather.gov (Chicago's is weather.gov/lot), and they can differ from the ones below.

If your policy is a few years old, check the names. On October 1, 2024 the NWS folded Wind Chill Warnings into Extreme Cold Warnings and replaced Wind Chill Advisories with Cold Weather Advisories, now triggered by air temperature or wind chill. On March 4, 2025 Excessive Heat Warnings became Extreme Heat Warnings. Advisories sit one step below warnings: the NWS issues them for hazards that do not meet warning criteria, so a policy that closes on an advisory will close more often than one that waits for a warning. For flooding, the NWS says 12 inches (30 cm) of rushing water can carry away most cars. The full winter ladder is in Winter Storm Warning vs Watch vs Advisory, the storm criteria in Severe Thunderstorm Warning vs Watch and the basic grammar in watch vs warning.

How do schools decide to close for inclement weather?

Published district policies say who decides, by when, and on what evidence.

• Frederick County Public Schools, Maryland: decisions are made by 5 a.m. where possible and announced by 5:30 a.m., or by 10 a.m. for early dismissals. The district says it is rarely possible to decide the night before because forecasts are uncertain, and that absences due to hazardous weather are excused.
• Saint Paul Public Schools, Minnesota: may cancel in-person school if wind chills are forecast at -35°F (-37°C) or colder at 6 a.m., or if snow makes it unsafe to get to school. Recess moves indoors when the wind chill is colder than -10°F (-23°C). In hot weather the superintendent will consider closing a school without air conditioning when the NWS issues an Excessive (now Extreme) Heat Warning. The first two weather closures are days off; after that the superintendent can switch to e-learning.
• Toronto District School Board, Ontario: a team of the Director, associate directors, transportation and communications staff reviews current and forecast weather and road conditions very early in the morning and posts any cancellation by 6 a.m. Schools often stay open when buses are canceled, because about 93% of TDSB students do not ride a school bus.
• England: Department for Education guidance tells schools to stay open in severe weather where safe and to close only temporarily, for inaccessibility or risk of injury, checking the Met Office warning system (how Met Office warnings work).

Do you get paid on an inclement weather day?

In the US, federal law turns on two questions: are you exempt (salaried, no overtime) or non-exempt (usually hourly), and did the employer close or did you stay home? Being paid a salary does not by itself make you exempt: the Department of Labor says your job duties and your salary must both meet its tests.

• Non-exempt employees: the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require pay for hours not worked, so federal law does not require the employer to pay for a closed day. Whether you are paid depends on your contract, the employer's policy or state law.
• Exempt employees, employer closes: if the employer closes for weather for less than a full workweek, it must pay the full salary, according to Department of Labor opinion letter FLSA2005-41. It may make you use vacation or leave for the day, as long as you still receive your full salary.
• Exempt employees, office open but you stay home: the Department of Labor treats this as an absence for personal reasons. The employer may charge your leave or deduct a full day's pay, but cannot cut pay for a partial day.

Federal employees have their own system. OPM's Governmentwide Dismissal and Closure Procedures (December 2025) set six operating statuses, from Open and Delayed Arrival to Office Closure and Shelter-In-Place. Staff who cannot safely travel to work can receive paid "weather and safety leave", but teleworkers and remote workers are generally ineligible when an office closes: they are expected to keep working.

What do the UK and Canada call it, and who pays?

In England, official documents say "severe" or "adverse" weather: the Department for Education uses the first, and UKHSA runs an Adverse Weather and Health Plan with heat-health and cold-health alerts issued alongside the Met Office. In Canada, the Toronto District School Board files its closure procedure under "Severe Weather" but also says "inclement weather", for example when recess moves indoors for rain, extreme cold or heat, or icy conditions. On pay, GOV.UK and Acas set out the rules:

• There is no automatic right to pay if you cannot get to work because of bad weather. Check your contract first.
• If the employer fully or partly closes the workplace, staff who were ready, willing and able to work are usually entitled to normal pay.
• An employer can ask you to take paid holiday, with notice at least twice as long as the leave: two days' notice for one day off.
• If your child's school closes, you may be entitled to reasonable time off for dependants, which your employer does not have to pay.

In Canada, employment standards are provincial. Ontario's three-hour rule normally guarantees at least three hours' pay when an employee who usually works longer is sent home early, but it does not apply when "fire, lightning, power failure, storms or similar causes beyond the employer's control" stop work completely. Canadian alerts come from Environment and Climate Change Canada, explained in ECCC warning vs watch vs special weather statement.

A reasonable inclement weather policy, in seven lines

1. Name the trigger: a specific NWS warning for the county, or a named official's decision by a fixed time.
2. Name the channel: where staff or parents will be told, and by when.
3. Say who is paid and how remote work applies.
4. Say what happens to deadlines and appointments that fall on the day.
5. Never require anyone to drive into a Blizzard, Ice Storm or Flash Flood Warning.
6. Say how staff stay in contact on the day (an Acas recommendation).
7. Say who covers emergency or necessary work (also from Acas).

How do you check the forecast the day before?

Frederick County and Toronto announce by 5:30 and 6 a.m., on a forecast that is still uncertain about timing. The useful check the evening before is whether the models agree. Every city page in our US forecast comparison shows the NWS blend, the American GFS and the European model side by side, a forecast confidence line, each day marked "models agree" or split by a number of degrees, each model's rain hour by hour for the next 24 hours, and the active NWS watches, warnings and advisories for that city. Our accuracy scoreboard shows which model has been closest over the last 30 days. For snow totals, how to read a snow storm forecast explains why the number and the timing drift.

Inclement weather is whatever the policy in front of you says it is. If it names an NWS warning, you can check that yourself the night before; if it names a person and a deadline, the forecast tells you how close the call will be.