Ice dam risk in Grand Rapids, MN
Will your roof get ice dams in Grand Rapids, MN?
49.9 dam days a winter
Severe risk. On an ordinary house in Grand Rapids, conditions for an ice dam come on about 49.9 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.
Grand Rapids averages 60 inches of snow a year and about 129 days with snow on the ground. Snow that lies that long is what turns a little attic heat into a ridge of ice at the eave. 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 Grand Rapids
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 18.8 | High |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 49.9 | Severe |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 88.8 | Severe |
Sealing and insulating a typical attic takes out about 31.1 days a winter here. It drops the risk from severe to high. An older house with a warm attic should expect closer to 88.8 days.
Preventing ice dams on a Grand Rapids roof
- Air-seal the attic floor: the gaps around the hatch, light fixtures, plumbing stacks and the top plates of interior walls. This is the fix that removes the cause, and it usually costs less than a season of contractor ice removal.
- Rake the bottom three or four feet of roof after any storm that leaves more than about six inches, from the ground with a roof rake.
- At the next reroof, ask for ice-and-water membrane under the shingles from the eave to at least 24 inches inside the wall line. It does not stop a dam; it stops the leak when one forms.
- Heat cable is worth pricing here even on a sealed house, along the eave and in the gutters and downspouts it drains into.
Running 60 feet of 5 W/ft cable whenever snow lies below freezing would use about 560 kWh a winter in Grand Rapids, roughly $95 at 17 cents a kWh.
Which to spend on first: air sealing or heat cable.
Grand Rapids winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 12.2 | 30.5 | 14.2 |
| February | 9.7 | 28.3 | 11.8 |
| March | 7.5 | 23.5 | 7.0 |
| April | 5.6 | 5.7 | 1.0 |
| May | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| October | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.2 |
| November | 9.0 | 13.0 | 4.2 |
| December | 13.4 | 26.4 | 11.6 |
Grand Rapids next to nearby towns
Grand Rapids ranks 5 of 103 Minnesota cities here for ice-dam days, behind Hermantown at 52.9 days.
- Hibbing, MN 30 mi, 49.9 days
- Cloquet, MN 60 mi, 52.2 days
- Bemidji, MN 65 mi, 51.3 days
- Hermantown, MN 68 mi, 52.9 days
- Brainerd, MN 69 mi, 46.1 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Grand Rpds Forest Lab, 1.7 miles from Grand Rapids. 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.