Do you need a snowblower in SeaTac, WA?
The machine for a SeaTac driveway
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 0.8 tons of snow on this driveway in SeaTac, 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 SeaTac is light enough for one.
How much snow SeaTac gets
- Snow a year
- 6 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.3 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 4
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 SeaTac 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 SeaTac
- Nov0.2
- Dec1.7
- Jan1.8
- Feb2.2
- Mar0.4
Snow worth clearing runs from December to February, heaviest in February. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
SeaTac and its neighbours
SeaTac is number 22 of 91 Washington towns here for snowfall; Spokane gets the most at 45 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tukwila, WA | 3 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Burien, WA | 3 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Des Moines, WA | 4 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Kent, WA | 5 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Renton, WA | 5 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Newcastle, WA | 9 | 6 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 Seattle Tacoma International Airport, 0.7 miles from SeaTac. 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.