SnowfallCheck

Do you need a snowblower in Albert Lea, MN?

Your answer for Albert Lea

Gas single-stage

Albert Lea gets enough snow that shovelling it all is a real job, about 5.1 tons a winter on this driveway, but storms over 8 inches are uncommon.

Before you buy, check the intake height against the deepest storm above, and plan to clear before the city plow leaves its ridge of heavy slush at the end of the drive.

What a Albert Lea winter brings

Snow a year
40 in
Storms of 5 in or more
1.7 a winter
Storms of 10 in or more
about once every 10 winters
Days with snow on the ground
84

Moderate, a typical snowy-city winter. About what a typical snowy US city gets. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.

On a two car driveway that is about 5.1 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.

When the snow comes in Albert Lea

  1. Oct0.3
  2. Nov2.7
  3. Dec8.1
  4. Jan8.9
  5. Feb9.8
  6. Mar6.6
  7. Apr2.8
  8. May0.3

Snow worth clearing runs from November to April, heaviest in February. Start and service a machine in October.

Albert Lea and its neighbours

Albert Lea is number 92 of 103 Minnesota towns here for snowfall; Hermantown gets the most at 90 inches.

TownMilesSnowTwo car, paved
Austin, MN1943 inGas single-stage
Owatonna, MN3144 inGas single-stage
Mason City, IA3644 inGas single-stage
Faribault, MN4543 inGas single-stage
Mankato, MN4739 inGas single-stage
North Mankato, MN5039 inGas single-stage

Where these numbers come from

Read next: Snowblowers on a gravel driveway and Single-stage or two-stage.

NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals from Albert Lea 3SE, 4.5 miles from Albert Lea. A normal winter, not this winter's forecast. Snow is weighed at 6.24 pounds a cubic foot, fresh and fairly dry; wet spring snow can weigh three times that.