Do you need a snowblower in Atchison, KS?
What clears snow in Atchison
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 2.2 tons of snow on this driveway in Atchison, 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 Atchison is light enough for one.
How much snow Atchison gets
- Snow a year
- 17 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.4 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 23
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 2.0 times as much. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.
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 Atchison
- Oct0.3
- Nov0.9
- Dec3.8
- Jan5.0
- Feb4.8
- Mar1.8
- Apr0.4
Snow worth clearing runs from December to March, heaviest in January. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Towns near Atchison
Atchison is number 7 of 38 Kansas towns here for snowfall; Dodge City gets the most at 19 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leavenworth, KS | 20 | 19 in | A shovel is enough |
| St. Joseph, MO | 22 | 21 in | A shovel is enough |
| Lansing, KS | 26 | 19 in | A shovel is enough |
| Smithville, MO | 32 | 18 in | A shovel is enough |
| Kansas City, KS | 37 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Gladstone, MO | 39 | 11 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 Atchison, 1.6 miles from Atchison. 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.