Ice Dams and Frozen Pipes

We've been in a warming trend for a number of days.  As a result of this "heat wave" the snow on the roof is melting and some of the things that were frozen now are not.  This is when you find the pipes that froze solid and broke.  You see, when they are frozen the water doesn't leak but once the solid ice transforms itself to a liquid it just pours all over the place.  I was reminded of this fact when I noticed a large pooling of water near one of the downspouts. 

The downspouts drain into a collection pipe that runs, underground, to the front yard.  This keeps the foundation from getting wet and then dry and then wet...  which is a bad thing because we have a lot of clay in our soil and it likes nothing better that to expand and contract with the wet/dry cycles.  That doesn't hurt the clay... it hurts the foundation.

So the pipe apparently got clogged with water/ice and then froze solid bursting the pipe.  I had visions of fixing it and replacing it with a pipe buried deeper but the ground is frozen solid starting about 2 inches deep.  What's a guy to do? 

Well, I removed the pipe from the downspout and created a small channel using a tarp and some 2X4's sending the water toward the French drain.  It's probably frozen too but at least it isn't close to the foundation.

I had finished the channel fix when I noticed water dripping from our soffit.  That isn't good.  I have now been introduced to "ice dams."  I've never had a issue with ice dams in all the years I've lived in Colorado.  Even when we had the great blizzard of 1983 (I think it was) I don't recall ice dams being a problem.  Now my dog fell out of the backyard despite the 6 foot fence we had... she just walked up the drift and fell into the neighbors yard... but no ice dams.  I'm thinking the great snow storm in early December is the cause of the ice dam.  We had lots of snow on the roof and with a little sun and mostly freezing temperatures the snow melts a little and then freezes thus the ice built up.  So I crawled up on my ladder and raked some of the snow off the roof.  I then cleaned what I could out of the gutters and finally scratched away enough ice (yes, it was damn ice) so it wouldn't get into the soffit.

Every place I've lived has always had strange weather every year... Grand Junction is no exception.