Do you need a snowblower in Farmington, NM?
What clears snow in Farmington
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 1.1 tons of snow on this driveway in Farmington, 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 Farmington is light enough for one.
A normal Farmington winter
- Snow a year
- 9 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.0 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 5.0 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Farmington 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 Farmington
- Oct0.5
- Nov0.7
- Dec2.0
- Jan2.2
- Feb2.0
- Mar0.9
- Apr0.3
Snow worth clearing runs from December to February, heaviest in January. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Farmington and its neighbours
Farmington is number 8 of 19 New Mexico towns here for snowfall; Las Vegas gets the most at 22 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Durango, CO | 39 | 64 in | Two-stage snowblower |
| Gallup, NM | 91 | 21 in | A shovel is enough |
| Montrose, CO | 120 | 22 in | A shovel is enough |
| Española, NM | 128 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Rio Rancho, NM | 131 | 9 in | A shovel is enough |
| Albuquerque, NM | 143 | 8 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 Farmington Ag Sci Cnt, 8.4 miles from Farmington. 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.