Ice dam risk in Baker City, OR
How often ice dams form in Baker City
5.6 dam days a winter
Moderate risk. On an ordinary house in Baker City, conditions for an ice dam come on about 5.6 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.
Baker City averages 16 inches of snow a year and about 26 days with snow on the ground. Most of it comes and goes within a few days. The conditions that make a dam need all three at once: snow, cold at the eave and heat above it.
What your attic does to that number in Baker City
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 4.3 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 5.6 | Moderate |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 7.3 | Moderate |
The attic matters less in Baker City than in colder towns: there are only 1.3 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Baker City roof
- Check the gutters before the first snow and clear them, so meltwater has somewhere to go. If you see icicles thicker than a finger along the eave after a storm, that is the early sign to look at the attic.
Snowy places are not always the worst: why snowfall misleads.
Baker City winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 5.3 | 9.8 | 2.3 |
| February | 2.9 | 6.0 | 1.2 |
| March | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| April | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| May | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| November | 1.4 | 1.4 | 0.2 |
| December | 4.9 | 7.5 | 1.8 |
Baker City next to nearby towns
Baker City ranks 3 of 57 Oregon cities here for ice-dam days, behind Klamath Falls at 9.8 days.
- La Grande, OR 40 mi, 6.1 days
- Ontario, OR 67 mi, 4.4 days
- Pendleton, OR 79 mi, 3.1 days
- Walla Walla, WA 93 mi, 1.6 days
- Middleton, ID 95 mi, 2.9 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Union, 29.3 miles from Baker City. A dam day is a day with snow on the roof and freezing at the eave while heat or sun melts the snow above it. This describes a normal winter, not this one.
- The weather station is 29 miles away, far enough that local snow can differ.