SnowWatt

Snow zone — CO · UT · ID · MT · WY · NV-north · WA-east

Heated driveways and snow-melting mats in the Interior Mountain West (Front Range, Wasatch, Inland Northwest)

Snowfall normals, electricity rates and melt-capability figures for the Interior Mountain West (Front Range, Wasatch, Inland Northwest), computed from NOAA and EIA data.

This page is data only — the written analysis has not been through editorial review yet, so it is marked noindex until it has.

Climate normals

Annual snowfall
53.8 in
Snow days ≥ 1 in
16.3
Season length
39 wk
Electricity
13.51¢

53.8 in a year at Denver-Stapleton, CO — NOAA GHCN-Daily, 1991-2020 normals. Electricity: Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for CO, UT, ID, MT, WY, NV.

Will a mat keep up here?

Melt capability against this zone's snowfall

Melt gauge — HeatTrak HR20-60 in Interior Mountain West (Front Range, Wasatch, Inland Northwest)

  1. ≥ 0.1 in33.3 d/yr3 min
  2. ≥ 1 in16.3 d/yr30 min
  3. ≥ 3 in4.7 d/yr1.5 h
  4. ≥ 5 in2.1 d/yr2.5 h
  5. ≥ 10 in0.6 d/yr5.0 h
Design day
5 in
Clears in
2.5 h
Running per year
27 h
Melt rate (claimed)
2 in/hr
Marginal

A 5 in day clears in 2.5 h, but normal snowfall means about 27 h of running a year.

  • The melt rate is the manufacturer's claim, not a measurement. SnowWatt has not operated this product. Every portable mat on the market quotes the same 2 in/hr, which makes it a marketing constant rather than a differentiator.
  • Clear time assumes continuous running on a mat that starts clear. It is the time to melt that much accumulation, not a storm-duration model, and it does not account for drifting, refreeze, or snow arriving while the mat works.
  • The design day is a 30-year normal, not a forecast. 53.8 in a year at Denver-Stapleton, CO (NOAA GHCN-Daily, 1991-2020), the largest daily threshold crossed at least once a year. Your worst day will be worse.

What it costs to run

Running cost — Interior Mountain West (Front Range, Wasatch, Inland Northwest)

Power draw
300 VA
Per design-day storm
$0.10
Per normal season
$1.09
Electricity
13.51¢
  • HeatTrak does not publish a wattage for this product. The figure above is SnowWatt's own arithmetic — 120 V × 2.5 A — and it is apparent power in VA, not a measured wattage. HeatTrak states no tolerance on this figure, which is not the same as a tolerance of zero — treat the cost below as an order of magnitude, not a quote. Treat it as an upper bound on real power, and see the methodology page for why we will not print it as watts.
  • Hours come from the melt gauge above: 2.5 h to clear the design-day accumulation, and about 27 h a year to keep pace with normal snowfall. Both assume continuous running and no idling, standby or preheat — so the season figure is a floor, not a forecast.
  • Electricity at 13.51¢/kWh (USD). Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for CO, UT, ID, MT, WY, NV.

The same figures for an embedded system, which publishes a real wattage and so can be costed exactly:

Running cost — Interior Mountain West (Front Range, Wasatch, Inland Northwest)

Power draw
1500 W
Per design-day storm
—
Per normal season
—
Electricity
13.51¢
  • Power draw is the manufacturer's published rating of 1500 W.
  • Electricity at 13.51¢/kWh (USD). Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for CO, UT, ID, MT, WY, NV.

Sources

High snowfall totals but dry, low-density snow and strong solar melt between storms. 53.8 in a year at Denver across 16.3 days over an inch — frequent small events, which is the profile portable mats handle best.

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