Ice dam risk in West Plains, MO

How often ice dams form in West Plains

1.8 dam days a winter

Low risk. On an ordinary house in West Plains, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.8 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.

West Plains averages 9 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 West Plains

Attic	Dam days	Risk
Air-sealed and well insulated	1.4	Low
Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed	1.8	Low
Older or poorly insulated, warm attic	2.3	Low

The attic matters less in West Plains than in colder towns: there are only 0.4 days a winter between a typical attic and a sealed one.

What to do about ice dams in West Plains

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.

West Plains winter, month by month

Month	Snow (in)	Days on ground	Dam days
January	2.3	3.6	0.9
February	2.9	2.5	0.5
March	2.4	0.6	0.1
October	0.1	0.0	0.0
December	1.0	1.4	0.3

West Plains next to nearby towns

West Plains ranks 72 of 80 Missouri cities here for ice-dam days, behind Maryville at 9.3 days.

Mountain Home, AR 40 mi, 0.2 days
Batesville, AR 68 mi, 0.2 days
Ozark, MO 77 mi, 3.9 days
Harrison, AR 77 mi, 0.3 days
Lebanon, MO 78 mi, 2.6 days

Where these numbers come from

NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from W Plains, 0.8 miles from West Plains. 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.