Do you need a snowblower in Elk City, OK?
What clears snow in Elk City
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 1.1 tons of snow on this driveway in Elk City, 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 Elk City is light enough for one.
How much snow Elk City gets
- Snow a year
- 9 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
- 6
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 5.0 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Elk City waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 1.1 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Elk City
- Oct0.1
- Nov0.5
- Dec2.4
- Jan2.7
- Feb2.2
- Mar0.7
Snow worth clearing runs from December to February, heaviest in January. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Towns near Elk City
Elk City is number 10 of 45 Oklahoma towns here for snowfall; Woodward gets the most at 15 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weatherford, OK | 43 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Altus, OK | 51 | 4 in | A shovel is enough |
| Woodward, OK | 72 | 15 in | A shovel is enough |
| Lawton, OK | 78 | 2 in | No snowblower |
| El Reno, OK | 83 | 4 in | A shovel is enough |
| Chickasha, OK | 87 | 5 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 Elk City 4 W, 4.4 miles from Elk City. 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.