Robotic snow removal in Colorado: big dumps, dry powder, and sun

Colorado snow is a study in extremes. Denver can go months without a flake and then get two feet in a night. Boulder gets nearly double Denver’s total. Steamboat gets four times Boulder’s. And in between storms, the sun does half the clearing for free. Zippy West works the Front Range and the Western Slope, and here’s how we think about a robot in each of them.

How much snow, where

Average annual snowfall (NOAA 1991–2020 normals unless noted):

Area	Average snowfall	Notes
Denver (airport)	47 in officially; the Weather Service says the true figure is probably closer to 56	About 16 days a year with an inch or more, 5 days with 3 or more
Lakewood / west metro	58 in
Aurora, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster	47–58 in	No separate official normal; the south and east metro often out-snow the airport
Castle Rock / Palmer Divide	75 in and up; Monument 111 in	Upslope on north winds; a foot on the Divide with an inch in Denver happens
Boulder	93 in	22 days a year with an inch or more
Fort Collins	51 in
Colorado Springs	33 in
Evergreen / foothills	80 in and up	Foothills need easterly winds; 4 feet there with 1 in Denver has happened
Grand Junction	18 in	City does not plow residential streets
Glenwood Springs	39 in
Durango	64 in
Steamboat, Breckenridge, Vail	185–190 in	20 inches or more on the ground 59 days a year in Steamboat

March is Denver’s snowiest month, then February and November. The average first measurable snow is October 18, but the 2025–26 season didn’t see one until the end of November — Boulder’s latest on record — and finished with 14 storms and 33 inches in Denver.

The two kinds of Colorado storm

Upslope. Easterly winds pushed up against the Front Range wring out the big ones: 32 inches in March 2003, 27 at the airport in March 2021 with 25 in Aurora, 20 in November 2024 with 28 in Aurora and two feet on the Palmer Divide. Spring upslope snow is often heavy and wet — the March 2024 storm put 3 feet on the foothills and knocked out power to more than 100,000 homes.

Chinook. Westerly downslope winds warm and dry as they descend, and January afternoons in the 60s are not rare. Snow vanishes in a day — and the meltwater refreezes overnight into ice.

For a robot, that’s two different jobs. Big overnight totals are a multi-pass, recharge-cycle problem, and dry powder is the easiest snow a two-stage auger will ever meet. The freeze-thaw glaze is an ice problem, which no blower solves and clearing-to-pavement prevents.

Cold and altitude

The system is rated to −25 °C with onboard battery heating below that; the details are here. Lithium batteries lose usable capacity as they get cold — a pack that gives you 100 percent at room temperature may give half at 0 °F — which is why the heater and the heated dock matter, and why we site docks out of the wind. Thin air doesn’t bother an electric drive the way it bothers a carbureted engine.

Sidewalk deadlines

Colorado state law prohibits plowing, blowing, or shoveling snow onto a public road, with per-day fines, and that’s a rule we map into throw zones. City deadlines after snow stops:

City	Deadline	Notes
Denver	Residences by the next day; after a notice, 24 hours	Businesses must start immediately; first fine $150
Aurora	24 hours (48 in a declared snow emergency)	$25 first fine for single-family; includes walks behind fences
Lakewood, Littleton, Arvada, Westminster, Loveland, Longmont	24 hours	Windrows across your driveway are your responsibility
Boulder	24 hours	5-foot minimum path at curb ramps
Fort Collins	24 hours	Includes the walk across your own driveway
Colorado Springs	24 hours residential	Rarely fined; clear hydrants
Golden	24 hours when over an inch; businesses 4 hours
Castle Rock	48 hours for storms of 2 inches or more	Corner lots clear both walks
Grand Junction, Durango	24 hours	Never into the street; Durango enforces by complaint
Steamboat Springs	Same day, daily Nov 20 to Apr 15	Snow stored only on private property
Breckenridge	After town notice, town clears and bills cost plus 50 percent

Nearly every Front Range city adds that the plow’s windrow across your driveway is yours to clear. We time a pass for it.

Mag chloride and your equipment

CDOT and most Front Range cities de-ice with magnesium chloride liquids and granular “Ice Slicer,” which are salts with corrosion inhibitors — kinder to cars than they used to be, still corrosive over a season. Tracks, augers, and the underside of the chassis collect it. Rinsing after storms and greasing tracks are on our maintenance list, and it’s one of the reasons the spring close-out matters.

Driveways, HOAs, and the foothills

Suburban Denver is concrete driveways and HOAs with quiet hours; quiet mode handles the overnight passes. The foothills are long, sometimes steep, often gravel — three things we measure rather than guess. Evergreen and Conifer driveways under ponderosas also need care with satellite sky view. Mountain towns with 180-inch winters are the robot’s best economic case and its hardest physical one: we’ll be direct about which driveways there are a fit.

The 30 percent discount

Colorado’s electric lawn-equipment tax credit gives a 30 percent point-of-sale discount at participating retailers on electric mowers, trimmers, leaf blowers, and snow blowers, through December 31, 2026, unless the legislature extends it. Zippy Lawnz customers have used it on robotic mowers. Whether a Yarbo snow module qualifies as a “snowblower” under the program depends on the retailer and the state’s reading of the statute, so ask Zippy West before you buy rather than assuming — and note the calendar.

Your crew

Zippy West: 720-251-1446, [email protected]. Winter routes fill before the first upslope storm; check your driveway from satellite in about two minutes, or see all service areas.