Ice dam risk in Huntington, WV
Will your roof get ice dams in Huntington, WV?
1.4 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Huntington, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.4 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.
Huntington averages 10 inches of snow a year and about 6 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 Huntington
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.0 | Very unlikely |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.4 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 1.8 | Low |
The attic matters less in Huntington 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 Huntington 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.
Huntington winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 4.3 | 3.5 | 0.8 |
| February | 2.5 | 1.1 | 0.2 |
| March | 2.1 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| December | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.2 |
Huntington next to nearby towns
Huntington ranks 13 of 13 West Virginia cities here for ice-dam days, behind Weirton at 10.4 days.
- Ashland, KY 12 mi, 1.5 days
- Ironton, OH 16 mi, 1.5 days
- St. Albans, WV 33 mi, 4.0 days
- Portsmouth, OH 37 mi, 4.8 days
- South Charleston, WV 40 mi, 3.8 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Huntington Swg Pl, 5.0 miles from Huntington. 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.