Do you need a snowblower in Española, NM?
Your answer for Española
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 1.4 tons of snow on this driveway in Española, 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 Española is light enough for one.
How much snow Española gets
- Snow a year
- 11 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.3 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 7
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 3.3 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Española waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 1.4 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Española
- Oct0.6
- Nov1.4
- Dec3.3
- Jan2.2
- Feb1.5
- Mar1.4
- Apr0.3
Snow worth clearing runs from November to March, heaviest in December. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Towns near Española
Española is number 5 of 19 New Mexico towns here for snowfall; Las Vegas gets the most at 22 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Fe, NM | 24 | 20 in | A shovel is enough |
| Las Vegas, NM | 55 | 22 in | A shovel is enough |
| Rio Rancho, NM | 61 | 9 in | A shovel is enough |
| Albuquerque, NM | 70 | 8 in | A shovel is enough |
| Los Lunas, NM | 92 | 5 in | A shovel is enough |
| Farmington, NM | 128 | 9 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 Alcalde, 6.0 miles from Española. 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.
- The two nearest weather stations sit at very different heights, and the second one averages 42 inches a year. Hills around Española can get a lot more or less than this.