hOn Fri, 19 Feb 2021 08:30:24 -0800 (PST), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Friday, February 19, 2021 at 10:35:59 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 2/18/2021 5:58 PM, Sonny wrote:

I was not sure you could get away from the cold on this one.. LOL

We didn't. Got down to 17°, second coldest Mardi Gras ever. Got down to 15° in 1899, the year of the Valentines Day blizzard. We had rain (froze) and sleet.... probably some dusting of snow, but not during the day.
Roads iced over, preventing travel for only one day. I was prepared. Only time I went outside was to maintain water and food for the birds, squirrels, etc. Though windy-cold, it was kinna nice to get out for some fresh air. Lafayette had water pressure issues, but no boiling water advisories as with some towns. No power outages here, either.
Dang Sonny you remember the 1899 freeze? LOL... Darn typo's

We were at 7 degrees on Dec 23 , 1989. That was pretty chilly and no
power issues.

Both my truck and my wife's car had ice circles down to the ground. 3"
of snow and ice on my hood. And we still have some snow/ice in our
flower beds.
The snow and ice, in our gutters around the house, is finally melting
and it crashes with a relatively loud bang when it falls down the down
spout.

I used to have ice-melt wires on my roof to prevent ice dams.

When I had my roof replaced a bunch of years ago, I had them open up the
soffits and use a ridge vent instead of box vents. I then installed those
styrofoam soffit baffles to increase the air flow through the attic. What a
PITA!

https://media.cmsmax.com/i0tjfpy8qhi...93-400x300.jpg

That's what everyone does in the North. It's a good idea down here,
too. It's a good way of cooling the attic, both winter and summer.

No more cables and I haven't had an ice dam since.

Obviously, you don't have these issues every winter, so it's probably not worth the
effort/expense.

Ice dams will ruin a roof, and the ceiling inside.

They say that tossing a sock full of ice melt/rock salt up onto the roof, just
above the gutter, will create a channel for the snow melt and prevent ice
dams. That's essentially what the ice melt cables do.

The real solution is to keep the main roof cold (soffit vents, baffles, ridge vents)
so that the snow doesn't melt up high and then freeze when it hits the unheated
soffit. That's what causes ice dams and icicles. If it gets bad enough, the snow
melt hits the dam and backs up under the shingles and into the house.

Into the house. They also use "Ice and Water shield" for the first
4-6' of the roof. It's a thick film with sticky on one side to stick
to the decking. The stuff is made to seal nail holes. Even with a
cold roof, ice dams happen (lotsa snow) and the I&WS keeps the water
out of the house.

That really sucks.