When the media announces a day an official closure

Question

Let's suppose tomorrow everywhere will be closed due to a heavy snowfall and subsequently the bad weather condition! The TV/radio announces / declares that tomorrow is a holiday for work, schools and universities! Which one of the following sentences would sound natural to a native speaker to indicate this message:

• 1 - The TV/radio announced an official closure tomorrow due to the weather.

• 2 - The TV/radio declared an official closure tomorrow due to the weather.

• 3 - The TV/radio announced a holiday tomorrow due to the weather.

• 4 - The TV/radio declared a holiday tomorrow due to the weather.

I am asking this question because:

1. I doubt which one of the verbs announce or declare would sound more natural when a clusure is publicly informed.

2. I am not confident if "official closure" is used frequently in this sense! If yes, then how?

3. To identify the frequency of using the term "official closure" VS the word "holiday" in this sense in English.

Answer 1

I don't think any of them would sound natural. Holidays are things like Christmas and New Year's, and I've never heard anybody say 'official closure'

The TV/radio announced that schools will be closed and work and will be cancelled tomorrow due to the weather sounds better.

Answer 2

This sentence refers to cancelling the event of going to school/work.

It's snowing, so school/work is cancelled.

Here is another option that refers more to the physical building being closed.

It's snowing, so my school/work is closed.

Whenever my school called to inform students that school was cancelled, the message was similar to this:

"This is Example County, calling with an inclement weather update. All Example County public schools will be closed to teachers and students on Example Date."

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To refer to school/work closures formally, you could call them inclement weather closures. If enough context is already provided about the weather, just closures would be understandable.

Declare connotes firmness, so it is usually used when describing serious matters, such as a national state of emergency. Announce connotes a revelation of something that listeners want to hear, so it is usually used for describing exciting or good matters, such as a day off from school/work.

Schools and businesses generally decide individually whether or not to close for snow. For example, it is common for a school in one county to close for snow while a school in a nearby county remains open. This is the main reason "official closure" does not sound natural, as it implies that there is a singular "official" ruling for closures.

Combining these explanations, both of these options construct your sentence naturally, yet formally:

The TV announced an inclement weather closure for schools and businesses tomorrow due to the snow.

The TV announced that schools and businesses would be cancelled/closed tomorrow due to the snow.

To refer to snow-related closures more casually, you could call them snow days. This is especially common among students who have just heard the announcement.

The TV announced that tomorrow will be a snow day!