Do you need a snowblower in Harrisburg, PA?
The machine for a Harrisburg driveway
Gas single-stage
Harrisburg gets enough snow that shovelling it all is a real job, about 3.1 tons a winter on this driveway, but storms over 8 inches are uncommon.
Before you buy, check the intake height against the deepest storm above, and plan to clear before the city plow leaves its ridge of heavy slush at the end of the drive.
A normal Harrisburg winter
- Snow a year
- 24 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 1.5 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 5 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 31
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 1.4 times as much. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.
On a two car driveway that is about 3.1 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Harrisburg
- Nov0.7
- Dec4.2
- Jan6.4
- Feb7.7
- Mar4.5
- Apr0.4
Snow worth clearing runs from December to March, heaviest in February. Start and service a machine in November.
Harrisburg and its neighbours
Harrisburg is number 54 of 68 Pennsylvania towns here for snowfall; Erie gets the most at 104 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanicsburg, PA | 8 | 24 in | Gas single-stage |
| Elizabethtown, PA | 17 | 24 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Carlisle, PA | 18 | 28 in | Two-stage snowblower |
| York, PA | 23 | 25 in | Gas single-stage |
| Lebanon, PA | 25 | 24 in | Gas single-stage |
| Columbia, PA | 26 | 23 in | Gas single-stage |
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 Harrisburg 1 NE, 0.9 miles from Harrisburg. 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.