Do you need a snowblower in Fairbanks, AK?
Your answer for Fairbanks
Cordless single-stage
Plenty falls in Fairbanks, about 7.5 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 Fairbanks winter brings
- Snow a year
- 58 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.7 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 10 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 186
Heavy, more than most snowy cities. That is about 1.6 times 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 7.5 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Fairbanks
- Sep1.3
- Oct5.4
- Nov13.2
- Dec10.5
- Jan8.7
- Feb9.6
- Mar6.1
- Apr2.8
- May0.2
Snow worth clearing runs from September to April, heaviest in November. Start and service a machine in September.
Fairbanks and its neighbours
Fairbanks is number 4 of 4 Alaska towns here for snowfall; Juneau gets the most at 88 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wasilla, AK | 232 | 62 in | Gas single-stage |
| Anchorage, AK | 258 | 59 in | Gas single-stage |
| Juneau, AK | 626 | 88 in | Two-stage snowblower |
| Lynden, WA | 1433 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Ferndale, WA | 1435 | 3 in | A shovel is enough |
| Bellingham, WA | 1444 | 3 in | A shovel is enough |
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 Aurora, 2.4 miles from Fairbanks. 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.