Ice dam risk in Miami, OK
How often ice dams form in Miami
1.8 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Miami, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.8 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.
Miami averages 7 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 Miami
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.3 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.8 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 2.4 | Low |
The attic matters less in Miami than in colder towns: there are only 0.5 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Miami 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.
Miami winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.3 | 3.5 | 0.9 |
| February | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.2 |
| March | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| November | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| December | 2.3 | 2.6 | 0.5 |
Miami next to nearby towns
Miami ranks 2 of 45 Oklahoma cities here for ice-dam days, behind Woodward at 2.0 days.
- Joplin, MO 24 mi, 0.1 days
- Neosho, MO 27 mi, 0.1 days
- Webb City, MO 28 mi, 0.1 days
- Carthage, MO 35 mi, 0.1 days
- Pittsburg, KS 38 mi, 0.7 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Columbus, 19.5 miles from Miami. 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.