SnowfallCheck

Do you need a snowblower in West Linn, OR?

The machine for a West Linn driveway

A shovel is enough

A normal winter drops about 0.5 tons of snow on this driveway in West Linn, 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 West Linn is light enough for one.

How much snow West Linn gets

Snow a year
4 in
Storms of 5 in or more
0.2 a winter
Storms of 10 in or more
almost never
Days with snow on the ground
2

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 West Linn 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 West Linn

  1. Dec0.9
  2. Jan1.3
  3. Feb1.4

Snow worth clearing runs from January to February, heaviest in February. Buy the shovel before the first fall, when stores still have them.

Towns near West Linn

West Linn is number 21 of 57 Oregon towns here for snowfall; Baker City gets the most at 79 inches.

TownMilesSnowTwo car, paved
Gladstone, OR34 inA shovel is enough
Oregon City, OR34 inA shovel is enough
Lake Oswego, OR44 inA shovel is enough
Milwaukie, OR54 inA shovel is enough
Tualatin, OR71 inNo snowblower
Canby, OR71 inNo 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 Portland Kgw-Tv, 10.8 miles from West Linn. 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.