Ice dam risk in Cookeville, TN
How often ice dams form in Cookeville
2.2 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Cookeville, conditions for an ice dam come on about 2.2 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.
Cookeville averages 6 inches of snow a year and about 12 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 Cookeville
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.8 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 2.2 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 2.7 | Low |
The attic matters less in Cookeville than in colder towns: there are only 0.4 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
What to do about ice dams in Cookeville
- 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.
Cookeville winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.3 | 4.5 | 1.0 |
| February | 1.8 | 3.2 | 0.6 |
| March | 0.9 | 1.5 | 0.2 |
| November | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| December | 1.0 | 2.3 | 0.4 |
Cookeville next to nearby towns
Cookeville ranks 2 of 65 Tennessee cities here for ice-dam days, behind Crossville at 2.6 days.
- Crossville, TN 30 mi, 2.6 days
- McMinnville, TN 35 mi, 0.5 days
- Hartsville/Trousdale County, TN 40 mi, 0.8 days
- Lebanon, TN 47 mi, 0.2 days
- Murfreesboro, TN 55 mi, 0.3 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Cookeville, 2.8 miles from Cookeville. 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.