Ice dam risk in Winchester, KY
How often ice dams form in Winchester
1.6 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Winchester, conditions for an ice dam come on about 1.6 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and February.
Winchester averages 9 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 Winchester
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.2 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 1.6 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 2.2 | Low |
The attic matters less in Winchester 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 Winchester 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.
Winchester winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.3 | 3.1 | 0.8 |
| February | 2.0 | 2.3 | 0.5 |
| March | 2.2 | 1.1 | 0.2 |
| November | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| December | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.1 |
Winchester next to nearby towns
Winchester ranks 29 of 42 Kentucky cities here for ice-dam days, behind Fort Thomas at 6.8 days.
- Paris, KY 14 mi, 1.6 days
- Lexington-Fayette urban county, KY 15 mi, 2.4 days
- Richmond, KY 20 mi, 2.1 days
- Nicholasville, KY 22 mi, 2.4 days
- Georgetown, KY 26 mi, 2.4 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Mt Sterling, 14.5 miles from Winchester. 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.