Do you need a snowblower in Rochester, MI?
What clears snow in Rochester
Cordless single-stage
Plenty falls in Rochester, about 4.7 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 Rochester winter brings
- Snow a year
- 36 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 1.1 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 10 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 62
Moderate, a typical snowy-city winter. About what a typical snowy US city gets. It tends to stay, so each storm lands on the last one.
On a two car driveway that is about 4.7 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Rochester
- Oct0.1
- Nov1.7
- Dec8.1
- Jan12.1
- Feb9.0
- Mar4.1
- Apr0.9
Snow worth clearing runs from November to March, heaviest in January. Start and service a machine in October.
Rochester and its neighbours
Rochester is number 66 of 90 Michigan towns here for snowfall; Sault Ste. Marie gets the most at 120 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester Hills, MI | 3 | 36 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Auburn Hills, MI | 6 | 36 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Troy, MI | 7 | 36 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Sterling Heights, MI | 9 | 32 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Pontiac, MI | 9 | 36 in | Cordless single-stage |
| Clawson, MI | 10 | 36 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 Pontiac Wwtp, 7.7 miles from Rochester. 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.