Ice dam risk in Enid, OK
Will your roof get ice dams in Enid, OK?
1.7 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Enid, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.7 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.
Enid averages 9 inches of snow a year and about 9 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 Enid
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.3 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.7 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 2.2 | Low |
The attic matters less in Enid than in colder towns: there are only 0.4 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Enid 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.
Enid winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.4 | 2.8 | 0.7 |
| February | 2.0 | 2.3 | 0.4 |
| March | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| November | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| December | 3.1 | 2.9 | 0.6 |
Enid next to nearby towns
Enid ranks 3 of 45 Oklahoma cities here for ice-dam days, behind Woodward at 2.0 days.
- Guthrie, OK 45 mi, 1.2 days
- Stillwater, OK 48 mi, 0.4 days
- Ponca City, OK 50 mi, 1.5 days
- Edmond, OK 57 mi, 1.2 days
- El Reno, OK 60 mi, 0.5 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Enid, 0.9 miles from Enid. 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.