Ice dam risk in Franklin Park, PA
Will your roof get ice dams in Franklin Park, PA?
3.9 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Franklin Park, conditions for an ice dam come on about 3.9 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.
Franklin Park averages 20 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 Franklin Park
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 2.5 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 3.9 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 5.8 | Moderate |
The attic matters less in Franklin Park than in colder towns: there are only 1.4 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Franklin Park 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.
Franklin Park winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 9.1 | 6.9 | 1.9 |
| February | 5.2 | 4.8 | 1.2 |
| March | 2.6 | 2.2 | 0.3 |
| October | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| November | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| December | 2.5 | 3.0 | 0.5 |
Franklin Park next to nearby towns
Franklin Park ranks 62 of 68 Pennsylvania cities here for ice-dam days, behind St. Marys at 26.9 days.
- Pittsburgh, PA 12 mi, 10.4 days
- Wilkinsburg, PA 16 mi, 8.8 days
- Baldwin, PA 17 mi, 8.8 days
- Whitehall, PA 17 mi, 8.8 days
- Munhall, PA 17 mi, 8.8 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Glenwillard Dashields L&d, 6.4 miles from Franklin Park. 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.