SnowfallCheck

Do you need a snowblower in Altus, OK?

Your answer for Altus

A shovel is enough

A normal winter drops about 0.5 tons of snow on this driveway in Altus, 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 Altus is light enough for one.

A normal Altus winter

Snow a year
4 in
Storms of 5 in or more
0.0 a winter
Storms of 10 in or more
almost never
Days with snow on the ground
4

Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 10.0 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Altus waiting a day is often a real option.

On a two car driveway that is about 0.5 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.

When the snow comes in Altus

  1. Nov0.5
  2. Dec1.3
  3. Jan1.3
  4. Feb0.5
  5. Mar0.5

Snow worth clearing runs from December to January, heaviest in December. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.

Towns near Altus

Altus is number 29 of 45 Oklahoma towns here for snowfall; Woodward gets the most at 15 inches.

TownMilesSnowTwo car, paved
Lawton, OK512 inNo snowblower
Elk City, OK519 inA shovel is enough
Burkburnett, TX583 inA shovel is enough
Wichita Falls, TX683 inA shovel is enough
Weatherford, OK706 inA shovel is enough
Duncan, OK783 inNo snowblower

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 Altus Irig Rsch Station, 4.8 miles from Altus. 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.