Do you need a snowblower in Manassas, VA?
The machine for a Manassas driveway
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 2.7 tons of snow on this driveway in Manassas, 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 Manassas is light enough for one.
How much snow Manassas gets
- Snow a year
- 21 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.9 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 5 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 14
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 1.7 times as much. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.
On a two car driveway that is about 2.7 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Manassas
- Nov0.3
- Dec2.8
- Jan6.9
- Feb7.0
- Mar3.9
- Apr0.1
Snow worth clearing runs from December to March, heaviest in February. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Towns near Manassas
Manassas is number 9 of 39 Virginia towns here for snowfall; Blacksburg gets the most at 25 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manassas Park, VA | 3 | 19 in | A shovel is enough |
| Fairfax, VA | 12 | 19 in | A shovel is enough |
| Vienna, VA | 16 | 19 in | A shovel is enough |
| Herndon, VA | 16 | 21 in | A shovel is enough |
| Warrenton, VA | 17 | 20 in | A shovel is enough |
| Falls Church, VA | 19 | 6 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 Washington Dc Dulles Airport, 13.4 miles from Manassas. 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.