Do you need a snowblower in Albuquerque, NM?
What clears snow in Albuquerque
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 1.0 tons of snow on this driveway in Albuquerque, spread over a few light falls. That is shovel work.
Get a wide plastic shovel with a bent handle before the first fall, and if you have a bad back, consider a cordless single-stage instead: the snow in Albuquerque is light enough for one.
How much snow Albuquerque gets
- Snow a year
- 8 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.1 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 3
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 5.0 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Albuquerque waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 1.0 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Albuquerque
- Oct0.3
- Nov0.9
- Dec2.8
- Jan1.4
- Feb1.5
- Mar0.7
- Apr0.3
Snow worth clearing runs from December to February, heaviest in December. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Albuquerque and its neighbours
Albuquerque is number 9 of 19 New Mexico towns here for snowfall; Las Vegas gets the most at 22 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rio Rancho, NM | 13 | 9 in | A shovel is enough |
| Los Lunas, NM | 22 | 5 in | A shovel is enough |
| Santa Fe, NM | 54 | 20 in | A shovel is enough |
| Española, NM | 70 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Las Vegas, NM | 88 | 22 in | A shovel is enough |
| Gallup, NM | 122 | 21 in | A shovel is enough |
Where these numbers come from
Read next: What a winter of snow weighs and Why storm depth matters more than snowfall.
NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals from Albuquerque International Airport, 4.7 miles from Albuquerque. 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.