Do you need a snowblower in Ottawa, IL?
What clears snow in Ottawa
Cordless single-stage
Plenty falls in Ottawa, about 3.3 tons a winter on this driveway, but it comes in shallow storms a small cordless machine can take in.
Before you buy, check the battery is rated to clear the whole driveway in one charge in the cold, or get a second battery. Batteries lose range below freezing.
What a Ottawa winter brings
- Snow a year
- 25 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.8 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 39
Moderate, a typical snowy-city winter. A typical snowy US city gets about 1.4 times as much. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.
On a two car driveway that is about 3.3 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Ottawa
- Nov0.8
- Dec5.3
- Jan8.4
- Feb7.3
- Mar2.9
- Apr0.3
Snow worth clearing runs from December to March, heaviest in January. Start and service a machine in November.
Towns near Ottawa
Ottawa is number 161 of 225 Illinois towns here for snowfall; St. Charles gets the most at 46 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Streator, IL | 16 | 26 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Morris, IL | 21 | 25 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Plano, IL | 27 | 28 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Minooka, IL | 29 | 18 in | A shovel is enough |
| Channahon, IL | 29 | 18 in | A shovel is enough |
| Yorkville, IL | 29 | 28 in | Cordless single-stage |
Where these numbers come from
Read next: Snowblowers on a gravel driveway and Single-stage or two-stage.
NOAA 1991 to 2020 climate normals from Marseilles Lock, 4.0 miles from Ottawa. 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.