Ice dam risk in New Albany, IN
How often ice dams form in New Albany
2.1 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in New Albany, conditions for an ice dam come on about 2.1 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.
New Albany averages 4 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 New Albany
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.5 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 2.1 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 2.8 | Low |
The attic matters less in New Albany than in colder towns: there are only 0.6 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
What to do about ice dams in New Albany
- 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.
New Albany winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.3 | 4.6 | 1.1 |
| February | 0.3 | 3.3 | 0.6 |
| March | 0.3 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| December | 1.4 | 2.2 | 0.3 |
New Albany next to nearby towns
New Albany ranks 84 of 88 Indiana cities here for ice-dam days, behind Plymouth at 15.9 days.
- Clarksville, IN 3 mi, 2.1 days
- Sellersburg, IN 7 mi, 2.1 days
- Jeffersonville, IN 7 mi, 2.1 days
- Shively, KY 8 mi, 2.0 days
- St. Matthews, KY 11 mi, 2.0 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Louisville Mcalpine, 3.0 miles from New Albany. 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.