Fighting Snow Wars at Home

Contemplating consumption, cost, and efficacy in a changing climate

A wall of snow cascaded toward the Lake Erie coastline in New York on November 30. (Credit: Andy Parker, meteorologist in Buffalo, on Facebook)

Following a productive snowstorm last weekend, I prepared to engage in the snow removal process—a burden that all who live in the northeastern United States routinely face. As someone who scientists might classify as no spring chicken, and because of my mistaken youthful belief in invincibility, I use a snowblower instead of a shovel to clean up my driveway these days. When I began fueling it for the first time this season, I got to thinking that I could use this moment as an opportunity to learn something.

Notwithstanding a couple of warm, largely snowless years, my hometown experiences frequent occurrences of very heavy snowfall. In the distant past of my childhood, such events also sometimes happened, but the usual weather pattern manifested in slower, sustained accumulations instead of significant, short-term blasts. The tendency has shifted toward winters replete with oscillating periods of mild rain and bouts of extreme snow.

This is because the Great Lakes materially affect weather patterns in this region. The volume and type of precipitation that falls in winter heavily depends upon whether the lakes freeze. Since 1973, the lakes’ ice cover has varied, which has created increasingly unpredictable winters. In more recent decades, the number of days with ‘full’ ice cover have declined overall.

Relatively warm waters contribute to snowfall because even when the ground temperature dips below freezing, evaporation persists. Lake waters rise into the atmosphere to the point of saturation and then fall back through the freezing air as snow. The large volume of warmth generated by the unfrozen lakes also causes the ground temperature to fluctuate more wildly. As a result, it is much rarer now that our properties remain covered in white for the duration of the season. In essence, we go from banal to crisis and back quite regularly.

Because of this, I wanted to determine how much gasoline I use per pound of snow when I open up the driveway. In part, I was simply curious because I had never actually measured it. Like everyone else, I had always just gone out there and thrown the stuff out of the way. (For the record, most of us do not engage in snow removal. Rather, we simply relocate it, but the latter term sounds weird even if it is more accurate).

Another reason I wanted to figure this out was because I wondered whether I was removing… ahem, relocating… the white stuff in the most efficient way possible. I considered this from two perspectives—one, in terms of fuel usage, and two, from an overall financial angle. For the former, I know that there are fuel saving options. My snowblower runs on gasoline, but battery-powered ones exist. If electric cars provide a comparable example, than a combustion engine snow thrower is probably the inferior choice.

Nevertheless, I received my machine as a gift many years ago, it has not failed me yet, and it is what I have to work with right now. Altering my process would likely require a financial investment that might pay off down the road, but the question was whether any change is viable under our current household fiscal conditions.

Even if the answer ultimately was that no change would be beneficial or doable, I believed it would be useful information for pulling the trigger later when our situation evolves.

Anyway, here is what I found.

Snow covering a full-sized cargo van on my street in 2022. That storm saw several feet fall in just a day or so (low quality photo by author).

The conditions

My neighborhood received 18 inches (45.7 cm) of snow over about 24 hours. It fell steadily, accompanied by little wind, allowing it to create a relatively uniform blanket. The temperature hovered close to freezing throughout the storm. My rough observations put the variation between 26^o and 31^o F (-3.3^o and -0.5^o C). Thus, a rather warm, wet snowfall.

The area upon which I targeted my efforts was 84 feet long by 12 feet wide (25.6 x 3.7 m), or 1,008 square feet (93.6 m²). At a depth of 18 inches (45.7 cm), this constituted approximately 1,512 ft³ (42.8 m³) of total snow to relocate.

I assumed an average density consistent with Damp New Snow. This was based on the estimated surface temperature of my driveway (which is typically 3 to 5 degrees F warmer than the air in the evenings on cold but sunny days like this one was before the storm) and the average air temperature throughout the snowfall. Because my snowblower effectively cleared a path completely to the pavement, this put the total estimated weight of the snow at 14,158.64 lbs (6,422.26 kg).

My snow machine is a 19-year-old Ariens that hosts a 24-inch wide (61 cm) intake housing and an 11-inch (35.6 cm) auger. It is powered by a 17-horsepower (245 cc) engine that has been well maintained. Each season, I drain the gas completely, clean all the moving parts, and change the oil, filter, and spark plug. The guy that owned it before me was a mechanic who was even more meticulous in his upkeep. In short, the Ariens dives into its work with greater vigor than I do, even on its initial start-up. And it probably runs as efficiently as a two-decade old machine can.

My Ariens did sit idle for the 2023-2024 winter while I was in Nepal. During that time, family members at home engaged a contractor to manage the driveway with a snowplow mounted on a pickup truck. I used this as a point of comparison.

The results

Time — There is no question which method wins here. A pickup truck can finish the work in 8 to 10 minutes. With the Ariens, the job takes about 90. Thus, a truck moves about 1,416 pounds per minute (642.3 kg/min), compared to just 157.3 (71.4 kg) with the smaller equipment. Bear in mind, the 24” Ariens is among the larger residential models.

The snowblower throw rate amounted to 9,439 pounds per hour (4,281/hr) or roughly 4.7 tons. Notably, this is a far cry from what the company claims its current models of similar size and configuration can do on its website (58 tons/hr). This suggests that with a new one, I could clear the drive in around the same time as a truck. Either newer models are far, far more effective, or Ariens tested them in conditions that rarely exist in the real world. Or, someone pulled that figure from a hat.

Anyway, the good news—I suppose—is that with a shovel it would have taken me four or more hours (and a great deal of soreness later). At least I am not doing that.

Fuel — At a total consumption of almost exactly 2.5 gallons (9.5 L) my snowblower moved about 5,663 pounds of snow per gallon (1,490 kg/L). The truck that plowed the driveway last year was a Ford F-150 with a fuel tank size of 23 gallons (87 L). I do not know how much gas it uses on any single driveway, but it achieved the goal in one-tenth the time it takes me with my machine.

If the F-150 sucked fuel at a rate equal to my snowblower, it would also have consumed 2.5 gallons, which seems high to me—that’s more than 10% of its tank. So, my guess is that the fuel use is a wash at best, but I suspect it is more likely that the pickup moves many more pounds per gallon. If, however, any reader has a comment on this issue, I would love to hear it. I am merely guessing.

Electric — Switching to a battery-powered snowblower of equivalent size would be expensive. The cheapest new one I could find costs $849 (I would probably not purchase a used battery-powered tool of such size and I don’t want to go smaller). Current gas prices in my area hover around $3.20 per gallon.

If it requires 2.5 gallons to clear my entire driveway, then each session costs $8 in fuel (it is less for less snow, but not by a significant amount). Generally, I only use the snowblower when the snowfall exceeds 5 to 6 inches. Over the past ten years, that occurred on average a little less than 5 times per year.

At that rate, it would take around 20 years for a battery-powered snowblower to make up the initial purchase expense (at present-day prices of both gas and a new machine). Even if that timeframe is reduced by half, that’s a long time. This also does not account for maintenance—which on a combustion engine I can do myself—replacement batteries, or the price of electricity.

Assorted — There are certain benefits to using a snowblower instead of a pickup truck. Chiefly, it would be impractical to buy an old truck and store it on my suburban property solely for this purpose. The Ariens neatly fits into my small shed where it sleeps during the offseason, conveniently out of sight. And like switching to an electric snowblower, purchasing an absolute beater of a truck would still cost a lot.

The neighbors would love it! (Credit: Viktor Bystrov on Unsplash)

If I opted to drive a pickup truck for my daily endeavors just so I would have it to clear my driveway during the winter, the efficiency victory would be lost. Our current car that my partner and I share is one-third of the weight of the smallest full-size pickup truck and even though our car is gasoline-powered, it runs just below the mileage efficiency of the average EV truck.

Moreover, our vehicle’s sale price was 30% lower than the cheapest EV pickup of the same year. Given that we drive less than 6,000 miles per year, we would never reasonably cover the cost differential even if we purchased the most economical pickup truck on the market.

Where this leaves me

While I wish I could adopt an alternative to my current method of snow relocation, there simply is no practical choice in my present circumstances. Obviously I could shovel, but I suspect that would only work for a few more years. I am in decent physical shape, but certain activities simply do not agree with certain parts of my body.

During my twenties when I played hockey, I suffered chronic pain for the length of the season (aptly exhibiting the foolishness of youth). As Indiana Jones once sort of said, I’ve added a lot of mileage since—not to mention a few decades. Shoveling excessive snow in this stage of my life is worse for my well-being than hockey was in those days.

So, I shall stick with old faithful.

Nevertheless, this analysis was not wasted energy. How would I properly evaluate the possibilities without first gathering this information? At least now I know that no change for the better is currently available. If things evolve, then I will reevaluate. Moreover, I am in a better position to recognize when it is a good time to reevaluate. To me, the modicum of effort required for this investigation was totally worth it.

* * *

To wrap this up, let me make a brief public service announcement. When I was a member of the fire department, we responded to hundreds of calls related to structural collapse during a storm like the one that recently occurred. What happened was that copious amounts of snow fell, then the temperature rapidly rose leading to excessive melt. Remember that the calculated weight of the snow on my driveway was 14,158.64 lbs. That is a lot of weight to sit on a rooftop, and some are larger in area.

If you live in a place that receives big snowfalls, keep an eye upwards. Light snow—like the kind that falls during very cold storms—will blow off with the wind. But because temperature fluctuation is increasingly unpredictable, a sudden melt can act like glue. It is a good idea to take action to mitigate the pressure on your home’s structure before it becomes a problem.

Engineers advised us during that event that homeowners should at least clear snow from the structural elements of their roofs (the tips of trusses and along support beams). This reduces pressure on the rest of the roof, so even if you cannot clear everything, you can mitigate potential integrity issues. Unfortunately, flat roofs require more thorough removal (yes, this time I mean removal).

Thankfully, no one died from a collapse in my department’s coverage area during that storm. But I witnessed many people endure incredible destruction and financial devastation. While those are preferable to injury or death, they are largely avoidable and very much worth the effort or cost of paying someone to assist.

Update: I edited this piece because rather than use the proper name for my snowblower (Ariens), I kept typing Aries. The latter is the name of one of my cats, so I suppose you will forgive the mistake.

See you Saturday.

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To read about one of my adventures in Nepal, click below.

I am the executive director of the EALS Global Foundation. You can check out the Evidence Files Medium page for additional essays on law, politics, and history; follow the Evidence Files Facebook for regular updates, or Buy me A Coffee if you wish to support my work.