Do you need a snowblower in Rockville, MD?
What clears snow in Rockville
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 0.8 tons of snow on this driveway in Rockville, 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 Rockville is light enough for one.
What a Rockville winter brings
- Snow a year
- 6 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.5 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- about once every 5 winters
- Days with snow on the ground
- 6
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 5.0 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Rockville waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 0.8 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Rockville
- Dec0.8
- Jan2.9
- Feb1.4
- Mar0.7
Snow worth clearing runs from January to February, heaviest in January. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Rockville and its neighbours
Rockville is number 23 of 23 Maryland towns here for snowfall; Hagerstown gets the most at 33 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaithersburg, MD | 5 | 33 in | Two-stage snowblower |
| Takoma Park, MD | 11 | 10 in | A shovel is enough |
| College Park, MD | 13 | 16 in | A shovel is enough |
| Hyattsville, MD | 14 | 10 in | A shovel is enough |
| Falls Church, VA | 14 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Vienna, VA | 14 | 19 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 Dalecarlia Rsvr, 10.3 miles from Rockville. 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.