Do you need a snowblower in Centralia, IL?
What clears snow in Centralia
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 0.8 tons of snow on this driveway in Centralia, 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 Centralia is light enough for one.
What a Centralia winter brings
- Snow a year
- 7 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.2 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 16
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 5.0 times as much. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.
On a two car driveway that is about 0.8 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Centralia
- Oct0.1
- Nov0.2
- Dec0.9
- Jan2.3
- Feb2.3
- Mar0.7
Snow worth clearing runs from January to February, heaviest in January. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Towns near Centralia
Centralia is number 225 of 225 Illinois towns here for snowfall; St. Charles gets the most at 46 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Vernon, IL | 18 | 10 in | A shovel is enough |
| Highland, IL | 35 | 10 in | A shovel is enough |
| Shiloh, IL | 43 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| O'Fallon, IL | 43 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Troy, IL | 44 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Swansea, IL | 47 | 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 Centralia, 2.3 miles from Centralia. 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.