Do you need a snowblower in Las Vegas, NM?
The machine for a Las Vegas driveway
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 2.9 tons of snow on this driveway in Las Vegas, 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 Las Vegas is light enough for one.
A normal Las Vegas winter
- Snow a year
- 22 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 1.3 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 3 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 11
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 1.7 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Las Vegas waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 2.9 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Las Vegas
- Oct1.4
- Nov4.0
- Dec5.7
- Jan3.0
- Feb3.8
- Mar2.8
- Apr1.3
Snow worth clearing runs from October to April, heaviest in December. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Las Vegas and its neighbours
Las Vegas is the snowiest New Mexico town here for snowfall.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Fe, NM | 43 | 20 in | A shovel is enough |
| Española, NM | 55 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Rio Rancho, NM | 86 | 9 in | A shovel is enough |
| Albuquerque, NM | 88 | 8 in | A shovel is enough |
| Los Lunas, NM | 105 | 5 in | A shovel is enough |
| Clovis, NM | 140 | 13 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 Las Vegas Wwtp, 2.6 miles from Las Vegas. 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.