Nothing evokes the feeling of winter quite as much as icicles hanging from the eaves, sparkling in the winter sun. But while they may be picturesque, icicles can be symptoms of a serious problem: ice dams.
As daytime temperatures begin to warm in March, many of these icicles will melt enough to fall off but that does not mean the problem has gone away. The ice dams will remain for a while, preventing melting snow from draining off the roof.
This winter has been unusually conducive to the formation of ice dams and icicles because of the freezing rain received earlier this winter.
Initially the rain ran off roofs, but as the temperature dropped below freezing the water froze along the eaves and formed ice dams. When temperatures remained below freezing, the ice dams never melted.
Subsequent snowfalls built up on roofs, and as the snow melted because of heat loss from the house or because of the sun thawing it during the day — or both — the ice dams became larger.
