Ice dam risk in Las Vegas, NM
Will your roof get ice dams in Las Vegas, NM?
2.8 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Las Vegas, conditions for an ice dam come on about 2.8 days in a normal winter, mostly in February and January.
Las Vegas averages 22 inches of snow a year and about 11 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 Las Vegas
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 2.6 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 2.8 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 3.0 | Low |
The attic matters less in Las Vegas than in colder towns: there are only 0.2 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Las Vegas 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.
Las Vegas winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.0 | 2.6 | 0.7 |
| February | 3.8 | 2.7 | 0.7 |
| March | 2.8 | 1.5 | 0.3 |
| April | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
| October | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| November | 4.0 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| December | 5.7 | 2.4 | 0.6 |
Las Vegas next to nearby towns
Las Vegas ranks 2 of 19 New Mexico cities here for ice-dam days, behind Gallup at 6.1 days.
- Santa Fe, NM 43 mi, 2.2 days
- Española, NM 55 mi, 1.8 days
- Rio Rancho, NM 86 mi, 0.7 days
- Albuquerque, NM 88 mi, 0.6 days
- Los Lunas, NM 105 mi, 0.3 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Las Vegas Wwtp, 2.6 miles from Las Vegas. 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.
- Snow-on-the-ground counts come from a second, nearby station, because the closest one does not record them.