Snow zone — MN · WI · IA · IL-north
Heated driveways and snow-melting mats in the Upper Midwest (MN, WI, IA, northern IL)
Snowfall normals, electricity rates and melt-capability figures for the Upper Midwest (MN, WI, IA, northern IL), 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
- 54.4 in
- Snow days ≥ 1 in
- 16
- Season length
- 30 wk
- Electricity
- 15.59¢
54.4 in a year at Minneapolis-St Paul International AP, MN — NOAA GHCN-Daily, 1991-2020 normals. Electricity: Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for MN, WI, IA, IL.
Will a mat keep up here?
Melt capability against this zone's snowfall
Melt gauge — HeatTrak HR20-60 in Upper Midwest (MN, WI, IA, northern IL)
- ≥ 0.1 in37.8 d/yr3 min
- ≥ 1 in16.0 d/yr30 min
- ≥ 3 in4.9 d/yr1.5 h
- ≥ 5 in1.9 d/yr2.5 h
- ≥ 10 in0.4 d/yr5.0 h
- Design day
- 5 in
- Clears in
- 2.5 h
- Running per year
- 27 h
- Melt rate (claimed)
- 2 in/hr
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. 54.4 in a year at Minneapolis-St Paul International AP, MN (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 — Upper Midwest (MN, WI, IA, northern IL)
- Power draw
- 300 VA
- Per design-day storm
- $0.12
- Per normal season
- $1.27
- Electricity
- 15.59¢
- 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 15.59¢/kWh (USD). Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for MN, WI, IA, IL.
The same figures for an embedded system, which publishes a real wattage and so can be costed exactly:
Running cost — Upper Midwest (MN, WI, IA, northern IL)
- Power draw
- 1500 W
- Per design-day storm
- —
- Per normal season
- —
- Electricity
- 15.59¢
- Power draw is the manufacturer's published rating of 1500 W.
- Electricity at 15.59¢/kWh (USD). Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for MN, WI, IA, IL.
Sources
- https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/services/data/v1?dataset=normals-annualseasonal
- https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/land-based-station/us-climate-normals
- https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/archive/march2026.pdf
Duluth (86.1 in) is the northern extreme of this zone and Minneapolis (54.4 in) the population centre; a single zone figure hides a 1.6x spread, so both stations are carried.
Next