Do you need a snowblower in Snoqualmie, WA?
The machine for a Snoqualmie driveway
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 0.5 tons of snow on this driveway in Snoqualmie, 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 Snoqualmie is light enough for one.
How much snow Snoqualmie gets
- Snow a year
- 4 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 0.2 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 10.0 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in Snoqualmie waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 0.5 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in Snoqualmie
- Nov0.1
- Dec1.5
- Jan1.5
- Feb0.2
- Mar0.3
Snow worth clearing runs from December to January, heaviest in December. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Snoqualmie and its neighbours
Snoqualmie is number 65 of 91 Washington towns here for snowfall; Spokane gets the most at 45 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issaquah, WA | 8 | 4 in | A shovel is enough |
| Sammamish, WA | 9 | 4 in | A shovel is enough |
| Newcastle, WA | 14 | 6 in | A shovel is enough |
| Bellevue, WA | 14 | 4 in | A shovel is enough |
| Maple Valley, WA | 14 | 18 in | A shovel is enough |
| Redmond, WA | 15 | 4 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 Snoqualmie Falls, 1.5 miles from Snoqualmie. 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.
- The two nearest weather stations sit at very different heights, and the second one averages 42 inches a year. Hills around Snoqualmie can get a lot more or less than this.