Do you need a snowblower in South Lake Tahoe, CA?
What clears snow in South Lake Tahoe
A shovel is enough
A normal winter drops about 2.8 tons of snow on this driveway in South Lake Tahoe, 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 South Lake Tahoe is light enough for one.
What a South Lake Tahoe winter brings
- Snow a year
- 22 in
- Storms of 5 in or more
- 1.0 a winter
- Storms of 10 in or more
- almost never
- Days with snow on the ground
- 9
Light, below most snowy cities. A typical snowy US city gets about 1.7 times as much. Most of it melts within a few days, so in South Lake Tahoe waiting a day is often a real option.
On a two car driveway that is about 2.8 tons of snow to move in a season, and a 10 inch storm weighs 2,600 pounds.
When the snow comes in South Lake Tahoe
- Oct0.2
- Nov1.6
- Dec5.2
- Jan5.6
- Feb4.1
- Mar3.4
- Apr1.5
- May0.1
- Jun0.1
Snow worth clearing runs from November to April, heaviest in January. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.
Towns near South Lake Tahoe
South Lake Tahoe is number 3 of 376 California towns here for snowfall; Truckee gets the most at 207 inches.
| Town | Miles | Snow | Two car, paved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carson, NV | 20 | 14 in | A shovel is enough |
| Truckee, CA | 31 | 207 in | Two-stage snowblower |
| Reno, NV | 43 | 33 in | Gas single-stage |
| Placerville, CA | 46 | 0 in | No snowblower |
| Sparks, NV | 47 | 7 in | A shovel is enough |
| Auburn, CA | 59 | 0 in | No snowblower |
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 Minden, 11.2 miles from South Lake Tahoe. 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.
- Days with snow on the ground come from a second nearby station, because the closest one does not record snow depth.