SnowfallCheck

Do you need a snowblower in Birmingham, MI?

The machine for a Birmingham driveway

Cordless single-stage

Plenty falls in Birmingham, about 4.7 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.

What a Birmingham winter brings

Snow a year
36 in
Storms of 5 in or more
1.1 a winter
Storms of 10 in or more
about once every 10 winters
Days with snow on the ground
62

Moderate, a typical snowy-city winter. About what a typical snowy US city gets. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.

On a two car driveway that is about 4.7 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.

When the snow comes in Birmingham

  1. Oct0.1
  2. Nov1.7
  3. Dec8.1
  4. Jan12.1
  5. Feb9.0
  6. Mar4.1
  7. Apr0.9

Snow worth clearing runs from November to March, heaviest in January. Start and service a machine in October.

Birmingham and its neighbours

Birmingham is number 63 of 90 Michigan towns here for snowfall; Sault Ste. Marie gets the most at 120 inches.

TownMilesSnowTwo car, paved
Beverly Hills, MI236 inGas single-stage
Clawson, MI336 inCordless single-stage
Berkley, MI436 inGas single-stage
Royal Oak, MI436 inCordless single-stage
Troy, MI536 inCordless single-stage
Southfield, MI536 inGas 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 Pontiac Wwtp, 6.8 miles from Birmingham. 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.