Ice dam risk in Borger, TX
How often ice dams form in Borger
1.5 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Borger, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.5 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.
Borger averages 15 inches of snow a year and about 8 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 Borger
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.3 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.5 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 1.8 | Low |
The attic matters less in Borger than in colder towns: there are only 0.2 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Borger 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.
Borger winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.6 | 2.5 | 0.5 |
| February | 1.9 | 1.6 | 0.3 |
| March | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| April | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| October | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| November | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
| December | 4.0 | 2.6 | 0.5 |
Borger next to nearby towns
Borger ranks 4 of 252 Texas cities here for ice-dam days, behind Pampa at 2.6 days.
- Pampa, TX 26 mi, 2.6 days
- Dumas, TX 35 mi, 1.0 days
- Amarillo, TX 40 mi, 2.0 days
- Canyon, TX 55 mi, 1.0 days
- Guymon, OK 71 mi, 0.2 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Borger, 0.7 miles from Borger. 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.