Do you need a snowblower in Metuchen, NJ?
The machine for a Metuchen driveway
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 2.8 tons of snow on this driveway in Metuchen, 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 Metuchen is light enough for one.
How much snow Metuchen gets
- Snow a year
- 21 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 1.1 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 3 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 27
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 2.8 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Metuchen
- Nov0.2
- Dec2.4
- Jan5.1
- Feb8.3
- Mar5.3
- 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 Metuchen
Metuchen is number 102 of 116 New Jersey towns here for snowfall; Phillipsburg gets the most at 41 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Plainfield, NJ | 4 | 21 in | A shovel is enough |
| Highland Park, NJ | 4 | 29 in | Gas single-stage |
| Perth Amboy, NJ | 5 | 29 in | Gas single-stage |
| Sayreville, NJ | 6 | 29 in | Gas single-stage |
| Plainfield, NJ | 6 | 21 in | A shovel is enough |
| New Brunswick, NJ | 6 | 29 in | Gas single-stage |
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 Plainfield, 4.7 miles from Metuchen. 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.