Ice dam risk in Milford, DE
Will your roof get ice dams in Milford, DE?
2.4 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Milford, conditions for an ice dam come on about 2.4 days in a normal winter, mostly in February and January.
Milford averages 13 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 Milford
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.9 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 2.4 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 3.1 | Low |
The attic matters less in Milford 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 Milford 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.
Milford winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.3 | 3.1 | 0.7 |
| February | 5.9 | 5.6 | 1.2 |
| March | 1.6 | 1.1 | 0.1 |
| April | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| December | 1.8 | 1.9 | 0.4 |
Milford next to nearby towns
Milford ranks 4 of 6 Delaware cities here for ice-dam days, behind Wilmington at 3.6 days.
- Dover, DE 18 mi, 1.7 days
- Smyrna, DE 28 mi, 1.7 days
- Easton, MD 36 mi, 1.5 days
- Bridgeton, NJ 37 mi, 3.1 days
- Salisbury, MD 38 mi, 0.8 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Greenwood 2NE, 10.5 miles from Milford. 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.