Ice dam risk in Roswell, NM
How often ice dams form in Roswell
1.3 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Roswell, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.3 days in a normal winter, mostly in December and January.
Roswell averages 10 inches of snow a year and about 6 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 Roswell
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.2 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.3 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 1.4 | Low |
The attic matters less in Roswell than in colder towns: there are only 0.1 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.
Preventing ice dams on a Roswell 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.
Roswell winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 1.9 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| February | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.2 |
| March | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| October | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| November | 2.0 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| December | 3.9 | 2.7 | 0.6 |
Roswell next to nearby towns
Roswell ranks 7 of 19 New Mexico cities here for ice-dam days, behind Gallup at 6.1 days.
- Artesia, NM 37 mi, 0.4 days
- Carlsbad, NM 69 mi, 0.2 days
- Lovington, NM 74 mi, 0.1 days
- Portales, NM 87 mi, 0.6 days
- Alamogordo, NM 90 mi, 0.0 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Roswell Climat, 0.9 miles from Roswell. 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.