Ice dam risk in Hereford, TX
How often ice dams form in Hereford
2.5 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Hereford, conditions for an ice dam come on about 2.5 days in a normal winter, mostly in December and January.
Hereford averages 14 inches of snow a year and about 12 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 Hereford
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 2.2 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 2.5 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 3.0 | Low |
The attic matters less in Hereford than in colder towns: there are only 0.3 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Hereford 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.
Hereford winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.2 | 2.8 | 0.7 |
| February | 1.7 | 2.5 | 0.5 |
| March | 1.9 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| April | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| May | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| October | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| November | 2.5 | 1.4 | 0.2 |
| December | 3.6 | 3.9 | 0.9 |
Hereford next to nearby towns
Hereford ranks 2 of 252 Texas cities here for ice-dam days, behind Pampa at 2.6 days.
- Canyon, TX 30 mi, 1.0 days
- Amarillo, TX 41 mi, 2.0 days
- Clovis, NM 52 mi, 2.1 days
- Plainview, TX 58 mi, 1.0 days
- Portales, NM 70 mi, 0.6 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Hereford, 0.4 miles from Hereford. 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.