Ice dam risk in Bardstown, KY
How often ice dams form in Bardstown
2.2 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Bardstown, conditions for an ice dam come on about 2.2 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.
Bardstown averages 12 inches of snow a year and about 11 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 Bardstown
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.6 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 2.2 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 3.0 | Low |
The attic matters less in Bardstown than in colder towns: there are only 0.6 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Bardstown 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.
Bardstown winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 4.2 | 4.3 | 1.0 |
| February | 3.7 | 3.5 | 0.7 |
| March | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| November | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| December | 2.5 | 2.5 | 0.5 |
Bardstown next to nearby towns
Bardstown ranks 22 of 42 Kentucky cities here for ice-dam days, behind Fort Thomas at 6.8 days.
- Mount Washington, KY 16 mi, 2.3 days
- Shepherdsville, KY 18 mi, 2.3 days
- Elizabethtown, KY 24 mi, 0.3 days
- Louisville/Jefferson County, KY 26 mi, 2.3 days
- Radcliff, KY 26 mi, 0.3 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Bardstown 5E, 3.9 miles from Bardstown. 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.
- Snow-on-the-ground counts come from a second, nearby station, because the closest one does not record them.