Ice dam risk in Placerville, CA

Will your roof get ice dams in Placerville, CA?

7.6 dam days a winter

Moderate risk. On an ordinary house in Placerville, conditions for an ice dam come on about 7.6 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.

Placerville averages 58 inches of snow a year and about 50 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 Placerville

Attic	Dam days	Risk
Air-sealed and well insulated	7.0	Moderate
Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed	7.6	Moderate
Older or poorly insulated, warm attic	8.2	Moderate

The attic matters less in Placerville 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 Placerville

Rake the bottom three or four feet of roof after any storm that leaves more than about six inches, from the ground with a roof rake.

Placerville winter, month by month

Month	Snow (in)	Days on ground	Dam days
January	10.1	13.1	2.2
February	17.3	11.5	1.8
March	13.5	8.2	1.0
April	5.4	2.7	0.2
May	0.6	0.3	0.0
October	0.1	0.2	0.0
November	3.8	2.8	0.3
December	7.4	11.4	2.1

Placerville next to nearby towns

Placerville ranks 3 of 376 California cities here for ice-dam days, behind Truckee at 36.3 days.

Auburn, CA 19 mi, 0.0 days
Folsom, CA 19 mi, 0.0 days
Rocklin, CA 25 mi, 0.0 days
Rancho Cordova, CA 26 mi, 0.0 days
Citrus Heights, CA 27 mi, 0.0 days

Where these numbers come from

NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Pacific House, 16.0 miles from Placerville. 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.

The nearest weather station sits at a noticeably different elevation from Placerville, so the snow figures may run high or low for the town itself.