Red weather warning: is there school tomorrow? Who closes schools in Spain

Published 22 October 2026 · Climaviso

A red warning doesn't close schools on its own. Spain has no rule that suspends classes automatically because of a warning: the authority in each region or, in some places, each town council decides case by case, and it's almost always announced the afternoon or evening before. Here's what to know and where to look.

The essentials

• There's no automatic closure. No region has a written rule that closes schools as soon as there's a red warning. It's decided episode by episode, with the AEMET (or regional) warning as one of the inputs.
• Who decides depends on where you live: the regional education department, the region's emergency plan or, in the Valencia region, each town council.
• It's usually announced the afternoon or evening before. But when a warning gets worse, classes have also been called off mid-morning.
• Universities decide on their own. No school doesn't mean no university classes, or the other way round.
• Check tomorrow's warning, not just today's: today's and tomorrow's warnings for your province show both days.

Who decides where

Some examples of how it has been done:

• Catalonia: when Protecció Civil raises an emergency plan (INUNCAT for floods, NEUCAT for snow) to its emergency phase, the plan's committee decides and announces it with an ES-Alert to phones. On 12 October 2025, for example, the next day's suspension of classes in the Terres de l'Ebre was announced at 22:51.
• Valencia region: the regional education department has said suspending classes is up to the town councils, following the emergency coordination centre's recommendations. That's why, under a red warning, some towns suspend classes and others don't.
• Andalusia: the Junta suspends classes through its emergency plan. On 14 November 2024, during a DANA, it suspended them in every school in the provinces of Málaga and Huelva and in towns in Granada, Seville and Cádiz, citing the red and orange warnings.
• Madrid region: after Storm Filomena's snow in January 2021, the region suspended in-person classes for several days.
• Elsewhere, the usual pattern is that the regional education department decides with the region's emergency services and announces it on its website, on social media and through the schools.

Where it's announced in your region

In Ceuta and Melilla, state schools are run by the Ministry of Education. Links checked on 22 October 2026; most of these sites are in Spanish or the regional language.

When do red warnings fall in the school year?

Red warnings are rare, and rarer still in term time, because the most common red, for heat, almost always comes in July and August. From 2019 to 2025, during the school year (mid-September to mid-June, leaving out the Christmas holidays), Spain had a red warning somewhere on about 12 days a year on average.

A zone-day is one warning zone with a red warning on one day. A day in red for two causes counts under both.

More than half of term-time reds were for rain, mostly in autumn on the Mediterranean; snow and cold gather in January. If you live in one of the zones with the most reds, such as southern coastal Valencia or the Málaga coast, it makes sense to check tomorrow's warning every autumn afternoon. They're on the map of red warnings.

How to find out in time

• The afternoon before, check tomorrow's warning for your province, or find your town.
• With a free account we email you each morning when there's a warning in the places you choose.
• For the decision on classes, the source is your region or town council (table above) and the school itself. ES-Alert messages reach your phone on their own.
• If the warning is red and classes aren't suspended, remember that a red warning asks people to follow the authorities' instructions and not travel unless necessary.

And if you work, see also what the law says about going to work under a red warning.

Sources

• Catalonia: Govern de Catalunya, press release, 12 October 2025.
• Valencia region: Valencia Plaza, 14 November 2024.
• Andalusia: Junta de Andalucía, 14 November 2024.
• Madrid region: Comunidad de Madrid, January 2021.
• Red warnings during term: official AEMET warnings, collected by Climaviso, 2019–2025.

Towns in this article

• Today's and tomorrow's warnings
• Red warning: do I have to go to work?
• What each colour means

A warning is not damage; a zone is not a building.