Snow Blower Prep: Local Deadlines by City

Deadlines for the largest cities

Find every covered city for your state in the list below.

Fuel is the number-one no-start cause

Untreated gasoline can start to break down in about 30 days, gumming the carburetor over the off-season. Drain summer-old fuel, refill with fresh gas, and add stabilizer, or run the tank dry at season's end. Ethanol-blend fuel is especially hard on small engines.

A fouled spark plug and old, cold-thickened oil are the next two suspects. A fresh plug and an oil change are cheap insurance against a machine that will not start when you need it most.

Shear pins, tires, and a test start

Shear pins break on purpose to protect the auger gearbox when you hit buried ice or a newspaper. Keep two to four correct spares. Set tire pressure to the printed spec so the machine tracks straight, and do a full test start well before the first storm so any repair happens on your schedule, not the storm's.

How we set the prep deadline

We estimate the first plowable snow from monthly snowfall normals and set the prep deadline three weeks earlier, so the machine is ready before the first storm and before shop backlogs build. Because first-snow timing is an estimate, we label it as such on every page.

Find your state

Frequently asked questions

Other winter-prep guides

See the methodology for how these dates are calculated and their limits, and the data sources behind them.