What a cold call!

Nearly 1 million kids in the New York City school system could be forced in front of the screens for remote learning Monday, Mayor Mamdani said Friday — even though Hizzoner could reinstate traditional snow days his predecessors nixed.

Public school students can at best hope for remote classes for early next week as the city braces for a potentially devastating storm that the mayor has already said could dump more than a foot of snow across the Big Apple.

“I know to the disappointment of any student that’s watching this right now, Monday is either going to be a remote learning day or it’s going to be an in-person school day,” Mamdani said on NY1 on Friday.

“It’s not going to be a traditional snow day. That is a determination we’ve made.”

The city will confirm by Sunday 12 p.m. whether students should show up for class in person or log in remotely.

“The reason that we’re waiting until then is to see what is the extent of the snowfall we’re talking about, because you know as well as I do, the range is a pretty big range,” Hizzoner said.

Big Apple mayors have the power to call a formal snow day, but they still have to ensure students still hit their state-mandated 180 days per year. A number of holidays, including Lunar New Year and Diwali, have been added to the school year over the last decade. 

City Hall pointed the finger at the Adams administration for its restrictive school calendar with added holidays.

Under Eric Adams, his school chancellors moved to end any days off during the school year for weather-related issues, instead pivoting to remote learning. 

The pivot was full of hiccups, though, with a number of students reporting issues logging on during a remote school day. 

The new school chancellor, Kamar Samuels, insisted the system was ready after testing the capacity as recently as last month. 

Mamdani didn’t rule out a classic snow day in the future, but one of his reps said the extra day off would affect testing schedules at the end of the year. 

“If they want to experiment with what’s been a consistent failure, it seems like a worthwhile use of 10 minutes of my day,” one parent griped.

At one Hell’s Kitchen school, teachers must check in with students at 9 a.m. and host Zoom sessions until their 1 p.m. class wraps up, according to a memo.

Forecasters are predicting the fast-approaching monster winter storm could batter the city with up to 18 inches of snow through Monday — bringing bone-chilling temps and a travel nightmare across the tri-state.

As Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday declared a state of emergency for the entire state, Mamdani insisted the city was well-prepared to weather the first major storm of his administration — dubbing the operation “Blade Runner 2.0.”

“The forecasts don’t always get it right, but what is being predicted right now, whether it’s a foot of snow or even a little bit more, would be one of the biggest snowfalls that our city has seen in years,” he said during a weather briefing.

“Either late tomorrow evening or early Sunday morning, we are going to see snow start to begin to fall across our city. It will fall and fall and then fall some more.”

Sanitation trucks were already out first thing Friday brining highways and major streets and the city had procured roughly 700 million pounds of salt in advance of the storm, Mamdani said.

More than 2,000 sanitation workers were also set to start working 12-hour shifts from Saturday in a bid to remove snow around the clock.

And 2,200 plows were in place to be activated citywide as soon as 2 inches of snow hits the ground.  

“Tomorrow, as the storm nears, we’re going to see thousands of DSNY collection trucks and agency partners transformed into the nation’s largest snow fighting operation,” Mamdani said.

Hizzoner urged New Yorkers to hunker down inside – and stay safe.

“I want to encourage New Yorkers to do their parts to stay safe this weekend. That is why we are issuing a hazardous travel advisory for Sunday and for Monday,” he said.

“I want to encourage New Yorkers to do something that we don’t often have the luxury of doing, which is take a breath and stay home, stay indoors, stay off the roads, watch the snow come down, watch the worst possible reality TV show you can find.”

The snow is expected to start in the early hours of Sunday and continue into Monday.

If the Big Apple gets at least a foot of snow, it would be the most in the city since February 2021, when 16.8 inches fell in Central Park over a two-day period.

“We’re expecting more snow than they were talking about even 24 hours ago. So pay attention to these totals,” Hochul said.

“Up to a foot of snow downstate could be paralyzing in a dense area like New York City. They have not seen snow totals like this in years.”

Hochul added that she had been in contact with Mamdani to give him advice on how to manage his first big blizzard.

“I let him know that we have a governor who’s from Buffalo and if he wants any tips, to give me a call, and I gave him some of them and he’s ready to go,” she said.

“I think we’re ready for this. But when you get complacent, that’s when you get into trouble.”