Ice dam risk in Liberal, KS
Will your roof get ice dams in Liberal, KS?
1.9 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Liberal, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.9 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.
Liberal averages 14 inches of snow a year and about 8 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 Liberal
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.5 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.9 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 2.4 | Low |
The attic matters less in Liberal 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 Liberal 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.
Liberal winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.5 | 2.3 | 0.6 |
| February | 1.8 | 1.7 | 0.4 |
| March | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.1 |
| April | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| May | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| October | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| November | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| December | 4.6 | 2.1 | 0.6 |
Liberal next to nearby towns
Liberal ranks 34 of 38 Kansas cities here for ice-dam days, behind Salina at 5.8 days.
- Guymon, OK 39 mi, 0.2 days
- Garden City, KS 64 mi, 4.7 days
- Dodge City, KS 70 mi, 4.1 days
- Woodward, OK 95 mi, 2.0 days
- Borger, TX 99 mi, 1.5 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Liberal, 1.6 miles from Liberal. 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.