Ice dam risk in Nicholasville, KY

Will your roof get ice dams in Nicholasville, KY?

2.4 dam days a winter

Low risk. On an ordinary house in Nicholasville, conditions for an ice dam come on about 2.4 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.

Nicholasville averages 15 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 Nicholasville

Attic	Dam days	Risk
Air-sealed and well insulated	1.6	Low
Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed	2.4	Low
Older or poorly insulated, warm attic	3.4	Low

The attic matters less in Nicholasville than in colder towns: there are only 0.8 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.

What to do about ice dams in Nicholasville

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.

Nicholasville winter, month by month

Month	Snow (in)	Days on ground	Dam days
January	4.7	4.1	1.0
February	4.5	4.0	0.8
March	2.8	1.5	0.2
April	0.2	0.0	0.0
November	0.4	0.3	0.0
December	1.9	2.0	0.4

Nicholasville next to nearby towns

Nicholasville ranks 12 of 42 Kentucky cities here for ice-dam days, behind Fort Thomas at 6.8 days.

Lexington-Fayette urban county, KY 12 mi, 2.4 days
Versailles, KY 14 mi, 2.4 days
Richmond, KY 18 mi, 2.1 days
Danville, KY 21 mi, 2.1 days
Lawrenceburg, KY 21 mi, 2.4 days

Where these numbers come from

NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Lexington Bluegrass Airport, 10.1 miles from Nicholasville. 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.