Do you need a snowblower in Medford, OR?
The machine for a Medford driveway
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 0.4 tons of snow on this driveway in Medford, 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 Medford is light enough for one.
How much snow Medford gets
- Snow a year
- 3 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
- 1
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 10.0 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Medford waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 0.4 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Medford
- Nov0.1
- Dec0.9
- Jan1.0
- Feb1.2
- Mar0.2
Snow worth clearing runs from January to February, heaviest in February. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Medford and its neighbours
Medford is number 25 of 57 Oregon towns here for snowfall; Baker City gets the most at 79 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Point, OR | 4 | 3 in | A shovel is enough |
| Ashland, OR | 13 | 1 in | No snowblower |
| Grants Pass, OR | 25 | 1 in | No snowblower |
| Klamath Falls, OR | 55 | 52 in | Gas single-stage |
| Roseburg, OR | 66 | 0 in | No snowblower |
| Coos Bay, OR | 101 | 0 in | No snowblower |
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 Medford Rogue Vly Airport, 3.3 miles from Medford. 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.