SnowfallCheck

Do you need a snowblower in Rock Island, IL?

The machine for a Rock Island driveway

Cordless single-stage

Plenty falls in Rock Island, 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 Rock Island winter brings

Snow a year
36 in
Storms of 5 in or more
1.4 a winter
Storms of 10 in or more
about once every 10 winters
Days with snow on the ground
46

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 Rock Island

  1. Oct0.3
  2. Nov2.1
  3. Dec8.8
  4. Jan10.8
  5. Feb8.6
  6. Mar4.4
  7. Apr1.1

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

Towns near Rock Island

Rock Island is number 86 of 225 Illinois towns here for snowfall; St. Charles gets the most at 46 inches.

TownMilesSnowTwo car, paved
Moline, IL536 inCordless single-stage
Davenport, IA636 inCordless single-stage
Bettendorf, IA936 inCordless single-stage
East Moline, IL1136 inCordless single-stage
Muscatine, IA2524 inCordless single-stage
Clinton, IA3132 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 Moline Quad City International Airport, 3.2 miles from Rock Island. 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.