Do you need a snowblower in Altoona, IA?
The machine for a Altoona driveway
Cordless single-stage
Plenty falls in Altoona, about 3.2 tons a winter on this driveway, but it comes in shallow storms a small cordless machine can take in.
Before you buy, check the battery is rated to clear the whole driveway in one charge in the cold, or get a second battery. Batteries lose range below freezing.
A normal Altoona winter
- Snow a year
- 25 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 1.2 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 52
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 1.4 times as much. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.
On a two car driveway that is about 3.2 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Altoona
- Oct0.6
- Nov1.0
- Dec4.5
- Jan6.2
- Feb8.0
- Mar3.7
- Apr0.7
Snow worth clearing runs from November to March, heaviest in February. Start and service a machine in October.
Altoona and its neighbours
Altoona is number 37 of 41 Iowa towns here for snowfall; Mason City gets the most at 44 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasant Hill, IA | 4 | 37 in | Gas single-stage |
| Ankeny, IA | 8 | 25 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Des Moines, IA | 9 | 37 in | Gas single-stage |
| Johnston, IA | 13 | 38 in | Gas single-stage |
| Urbandale, IA | 16 | 38 in | Gas single-stage |
| Norwalk, IA | 16 | 37 in | Gas 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 Ankeny, 10.4 miles from Altoona. 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.