Ice dam risk in Dodge City, KS
How often ice dams form in Dodge City
4.1 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Dodge City, conditions for an ice dam come on about 4.1 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.
Dodge City averages 19 inches of snow a year and about 17 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 Dodge City
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 3.1 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 4.1 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 5.4 | Moderate |
The attic matters less in Dodge City than in colder towns: there are only 1.0 day a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Dodge 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.
Dodge City winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.9 | 4.8 | 1.4 |
| February | 4.7 | 4.1 | 1.0 |
| March | 3.7 | 1.8 | 0.3 |
| April | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| October | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| November | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.2 |
| December | 4.0 | 4.6 | 1.2 |
Dodge City next to nearby towns
Dodge City ranks 23 of 38 Kansas cities here for ice-dam days, behind Salina at 5.8 days.
- Garden City, KS 48 mi, 4.7 days
- Liberal, KS 70 mi, 1.9 days
- Great Bend, KS 78 mi, 4.6 days
- Hays, KS 86 mi, 2.5 days
- Woodward, OK 98 mi, 2.0 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Dodge City, 2.7 miles from Dodge 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.