Do you need a snowblower in Rifle, CO?
The machine for a Rifle driveway
Cordless single-stage
Plenty falls in Rifle, about 3.5 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.
A normal Rifle winter
- Snow a year
- 27 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.7 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 1.4 times as much. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.
On a two car driveway that is about 3.5 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Rifle
- Oct0.9
- Nov2.7
- Dec7.9
- Jan6.9
- Feb5.5
- Mar1.8
- Apr1.1
Snow worth clearing runs from November to April, heaviest in December. Start and service a machine in October.
Towns near Rifle
Rifle is number 48 of 53 Colorado towns here for snowfall; Steamboat Springs gets the most at 185 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glenwood Springs, CO | 23 | 39 in | Gas single-stage |
| Grand Junction, CO | 53 | 18 in | A shovel is enough |
| Fruita, CO | 58 | 22 in | A shovel is enough |
| Montrose, CO | 74 | 22 in | A shovel is enough |
| Steamboat Springs, CO | 82 | 185 in | Two-stage snowblower |
| Vernal, UT | 113 | 20 in | A shovel is enough |
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 Rifle 3ENE, 2.7 miles from Rifle. 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.