Do you need a snowblower in Amarillo, TX?
The machine for a Amarillo driveway
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 2.2 tons of snow on this driveway in Amarillo, 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 Amarillo is light enough for one.
How much snow Amarillo gets
- Snow a year
- 17 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.8 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 10
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 2.0 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Amarillo waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 2.2 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Amarillo
- Oct0.7
- Nov2.6
- Dec3.8
- Jan4.0
- Feb3.5
- Mar1.9
- Apr0.5
- May0.2
Snow worth clearing runs from November to March, heaviest in January. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Towns near Amarillo
Amarillo is the snowiest Texas town here for snowfall.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canyon, TX | 15 | 8 in | A shovel is enough |
| Borger, TX | 40 | 15 in | A shovel is enough |
| Hereford, TX | 41 | 14 in | A shovel is enough |
| Dumas, TX | 46 | 9 in | A shovel is enough |
| Pampa, TX | 54 | 16 in | A shovel is enough |
| Plainview, TX | 70 | 8 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 Amarillo, 7.2 miles from Amarillo. 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.