SnowfallCheck

Do you need a snowblower in Pella, IA?

Your answer for Pella

Cordless single-stage

Plenty falls in Pella, about 3.7 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 Pella winter brings

Snow a year
29 in
Storms of 5 in or more
1.2 a winter
Storms of 10 in or more
about once every 10 winters
Days with snow on the ground
56

Moderate, a typical snowy-city winter. A typical snowy US city gets about 1.3 times as much. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.

On a two car driveway that is about 3.7 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.

When the snow comes in Pella

  1. Oct0.3
  2. Nov1.6
  3. Dec6.3
  4. Jan9.2
  5. Feb6.0
  6. Mar4.5
  7. Apr0.8

Snow worth clearing runs from November to March, heaviest in January. Start and service a machine in October.

Pella and its neighbours

Pella is number 30 of 41 Iowa towns here for snowfall; Mason City gets the most at 44 inches.

TownMilesSnowTwo car, paved
Oskaloosa, IA1624 inCordless single-stage
Newton, IA2129 inCordless single-stage
Pleasant Hill, IA3337 inGas single-stage
Altoona, IA3425 inCordless single-stage
Indianola, IA3431 inCordless single-stage
Ottumwa, IA3724 inCordless 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 Newton, 22.0 miles from Pella. 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.