Do you need a snowblower in Martinsville, VA?
What clears snow in Martinsville
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 1.2 tons of snow on this driveway in Martinsville, 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 Martinsville is light enough for one.
A normal Martinsville winter
- Snow a year
- 9 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.6 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 10 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 3
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 3.3 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Martinsville waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 1.2 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Martinsville
- Dec2.0
- Jan3.3
- Feb2.4
- Mar1.7
Snow worth clearing runs from December to March, heaviest in January. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Martinsville and its neighbours
Martinsville is number 23 of 39 Virginia towns here for snowfall; Blacksburg gets the most at 25 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eden, NC | 14 | 5 in | A shovel is enough |
| Reidsville, NC | 26 | 7 in | A shovel is enough |
| Danville, VA | 26 | 5 in | A shovel is enough |
| Summerfield, NC | 34 | 7 in | A shovel is enough |
| Greensboro, NC | 41 | 7 in | A shovel is enough |
| Roanoke, VA | 41 | 15 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 Martinsville Fltr Plt, 1.5 miles from Martinsville. 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.