Ice dam risk in Paducah, KY
Ice dams in Paducah, KY: how often
1.4 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Paducah, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.4 days in a normal winter, mostly in December and January.
Paducah averages 3 inches of snow a year and about 7 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 Paducah
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.0 | Very unlikely |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.4 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 1.8 | Low |
The attic matters less in Paducah 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 Paducah 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.
Paducah winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0.7 | 2.2 | 0.5 |
| February | 1.8 | 1.5 | 0.3 |
| March | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| December | 0.5 | 3.0 | 0.5 |
Paducah next to nearby towns
Paducah ranks 33 of 42 Kentucky cities here for ice-dam days, behind Fort Thomas at 6.8 days.
- Murray, KY 36 mi, 0.8 days
- Marion, IL 49 mi, 3.1 days
- Union City, TN 50 mi, 0.9 days
- Martin, TN 52 mi, 0.5 days
- Cape Girardeau, MO 53 mi, 2.1 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Brookport Dam 52, 3.9 miles from Paducah. 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.