SnowfallCheck

Do you need a snowblower in Carson, NV?

The machine for a Carson driveway

A shovel is enough

A normal winter drops about 1.8 tons of snow on this driveway in Carson, 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 Carson is light enough for one.

A normal Carson winter

Snow a year
14 in
Storms of 5 in or more
0.9 a winter
Storms of 10 in or more
about once every 10 winters
Days with snow on the ground
9

Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 2.5 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Carson waiting a day is often a real option.

On a two car driveway that is about 1.8 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.

When the snow comes in Carson

  1. Nov0.7
  2. Dec6.4
  3. Jan3.6
  4. Feb1.7
  5. Mar1.6

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

Carson and its neighbours

Carson is number 3 of 10 Nevada towns here for snowfall; Elko gets the most at 41 inches.

TownMilesSnowTwo car, paved
South Lake Tahoe, CA2022 inA shovel is enough
Truckee, CA28207 inTwo-stage snowblower
Reno, NV2833 inGas single-stage
Sparks, NV297 inA shovel is enough
Fernley, NV415 inA shovel is enough
Placerville, CA640 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 Carson City, 2.2 miles from Carson. 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.