Ice dam risk in Emporia, KS

Ice dams in Emporia, KS: how often

4.4 dam days a winter

Low risk. On an ordinary house in Emporia, conditions for an ice dam come on about 4.4 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.

Emporia averages 11 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 Emporia

Attic	Dam days	Risk
Air-sealed and well insulated	3.0	Low
Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed	4.4	Low
Older or poorly insulated, warm attic	6.0	Moderate

The attic matters less in Emporia than in colder towns: there are only 1.4 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.

What to do about ice dams in Emporia

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.

Emporia winter, month by month

Month	Snow (in)	Days on ground	Dam days
January	4.0	6.2	1.8
February	1.3	3.9	1.0
March	1.3	1.1	0.2
April	0.2	0.1	0.0
October	0.3	0.0	0.0
November	0.4	0.8	0.1
December	3.1	4.9	1.3

Emporia next to nearby towns

Emporia ranks 19 of 38 Kansas cities here for ice-dam days, behind Salina at 5.8 days.

Topeka, KS 51 mi, 4.5 days
Ottawa, KS 52 mi, 2.9 days
El Dorado, KS 54 mi, 0.8 days
Junction City, KS 56 mi, 5.7 days
Manhattan, KS 59 mi, 5.4 days

Where these numbers come from

NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Cottonwood Falls, 19.4 miles from Emporia. 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.