Do you need a snowblower in Port Orchard, WA?
The machine for a Port Orchard driveway
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 0.4 tons of snow on this driveway in Port Orchard, 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 Port Orchard is light enough for one.
How much snow Port Orchard gets
- Snow a year
- 3 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.1 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 10 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 2
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 Port Orchard 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 Port Orchard
- Nov0.3
- Dec1.3
- Jan0.6
- Feb0.7
- Mar0.1
Inches of new snow per month, averaged over 1991 to 2020.
Port Orchard and its neighbours
Port Orchard is number 76 of 91 Washington towns here for snowfall; Spokane gets the most at 45 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bremerton, WA | 4 | 3 in | A shovel is enough |
| Bainbridge Island, WA | 9 | 3 in | A shovel is enough |
| Gig Harbor, WA | 14 | 0 in | No snowblower |
| Poulsbo, WA | 14 | 3 in | A shovel is enough |
| Burien, WA | 14 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Seattle, WA | 14 | 4 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 Bremerton, 3.2 miles from Port Orchard. 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.