Ice dam risk in Somerset, KY
Ice dams in Somerset, KY: how often
1.5 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Somerset, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.5 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.
Somerset averages 5 inches of snow a year and about 8 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 Somerset
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.1 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.5 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 1.9 | Low |
The attic matters less in Somerset 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 Somerset 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.
Somerset winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.0 | 2.9 | 0.6 |
| February | 1.3 | 2.2 | 0.4 |
| March | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| December | 0.3 | 1.8 | 0.3 |
Somerset next to nearby towns
Somerset ranks 32 of 42 Kentucky cities here for ice-dam days, behind Fort Thomas at 6.8 days.
- Berea, KY 39 mi, 1.9 days
- Danville, KY 39 mi, 2.1 days
- Campbellsville, KY 45 mi, 2.5 days
- Richmond, KY 47 mi, 2.1 days
- Nicholasville, KY 56 mi, 2.4 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Somerset 2 N, 2.2 miles from Somerset. 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.