An ice dam or ice damming occurs when heat escapes from a home via a poorly insulated ceiling. The escaping heat melts the snow on the roof, which runs down and then re-freezes over the eaves of the building.
This re-freezing causes a dam of ice to build up, eventually causing water to back up under the shingles and drip into the affected home.
The solution is to add insulation to the ceiling where-ever possible, and prevent the heat from entering the attic in the first place.
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An ice dam is an ice build-up on the eaves of sloped roofs of heated buildings that results from melting snow under a snow pack reaching the eave and freezing there. Freezing at the eave impedes the drainage of meltwater, which adds to the ice dam and causes backup of the meltwater, which may cause water leakage into the roof and consequent damage to the building and its contents if the water leaks through the roof.