Do you need a snowblower in Bend, OR?
Your answer for Bend
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 2.8 tons of snow on this driveway in Bend, 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 Bend is light enough for one.
How much snow Bend gets
- Snow a year
- 22 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
- 15
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 1.7 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Bend waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 2.8 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Bend
- Oct0.2
- Nov2.0
- Dec5.3
- Jan6.4
- Feb5.5
- Mar1.5
- Apr0.7
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 Bend
Bend is number 3 of 57 Oregon towns here for snowfall; Baker City gets the most at 79 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redmond, OR | 15 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Prineville, OR | 28 | 9 in | A shovel is enough |
| Sweet Home, OR | 73 | 0 in | No snowblower |
| Springfield, OR | 83 | 1 in | No snowblower |
| Lebanon, OR | 86 | 0 in | No snowblower |
| Cottage Grove, OR | 89 | 3 in | No 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 Bend, 1.1 miles from Bend. 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.
- Days with snow on the ground come from a second nearby station, because the closest one does not record snow depth.