Ice dam risk in Woodward, OK
Ice dams in Woodward, OK: how often
2.0 dam days a winter
Low risk. On an ordinary house in Woodward, conditions for an ice dam come on about 2.0 days in a normal winter, mostly in January and December.
Woodward averages 12 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 Woodward
| Attic | Dam days | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Air-sealed and well insulated | 1.6 | Low |
| Typical, some insulation, not air-sealed | 2.0 | Low |
| Older or poorly insulated, warm attic | 2.5 | Low |
The attic matters less in Woodward 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 Woodward 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.
Woodward winter, month by month
| Month | Snow (in) | Days on ground | Dam days |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.7 | 2.7 | 0.7 |
| February | 1.9 | 1.9 | 0.4 |
| March | 3.5 | 0.9 | 0.1 |
| April | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| October | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| November | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| December | 3.7 | 2.6 | 0.7 |
Woodward next to nearby towns
Woodward ranks 1 of 45 Oklahoma cities here for ice-dam days, the worst in the state.
- Elk City, OK 72 mi, 1.1 days
- Weatherford, OK 73 mi, 0.8 days
- Enid, OK 85 mi, 1.7 days
- Liberal, KS 95 mi, 1.9 days
- Dodge City, KS 98 mi, 4.1 days
Where these numbers come from
NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals from Ft Supply 3SE, 11.0 miles from Woodward. 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.