Photo by La Tur.

During this winter season, the federal government has closed five times for snow. In the past decade, that number was only matched during the 2009-10 season, which had to deal with Snowmageddon. Save for one snow closure during the 2012-13 season for Snowquester, the federal government has not been closed by snow during any other season since 2004.

While closures formerly caused a big dent in productivity, that’s no longer the case, thanks to telework. As NextGov reports:

New figures released Monday by Global Workplace Analytics and Telework Research Network show that telework has saved federal agencies $32 million in productivity over the four days since December that D.C.-area federal offices have been closed due to snow and ice.

The savings already are greater than what government estimates show to be the entire cost implementing telework throughout government. The Congressional Budget Office in 2010 estimated the entire five-year cost of implementing telework at federal agencies at $30 million. Estimates during the four-day Snowmageddon shutdown in 2010 also show the federal government lost between $70 million and $100 million per day in productivity.

Below is a chart DCist whipped up to show federal government closures for snow over the past decade using OPM’s archives.

And here are snow totals for each of these seasons, as recorded at National Airport, for comparison.