Do you need a snowblower in Rio Rancho, NM?
What clears snow in Rio Rancho
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 1.2 tons of snow on this driveway in Rio Rancho, 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 Rio Rancho is light enough for one.
A normal Rio Rancho winter
- Snow a year
- 9 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.4 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 10 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 3
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 3.3 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Rio Rancho waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 1.2 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Rio Rancho
- Oct0.6
- Nov0.7
- Dec3.8
- Jan1.6
- Feb2.0
- Mar0.6
Snow worth clearing runs from December to February, heaviest in December. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Rio Rancho and its neighbours
Rio Rancho is number 7 of 19 New Mexico towns here for snowfall; Las Vegas gets the most at 22 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albuquerque, NM | 13 | 8 in | A shovel is enough |
| Los Lunas, NM | 34 | 5 in | A shovel is enough |
| Santa Fe, NM | 48 | 20 in | A shovel is enough |
| Española, NM | 61 | 11 in | A shovel is enough |
| Las Vegas, NM | 86 | 22 in | A shovel is enough |
| Gallup, NM | 116 | 21 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 Rio Rancho #1, 4.5 miles from Rio Rancho. 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.