Why is water dripping from underneath my eaves?

Q: Why is water dripping from underneath my eaves? There's no leakage in the attic or living quarters, but I'm concerned. The leaks happened when warm weather melted snow on the roof.

A: The water dripping from your soffit is a definite warning sign. You're on the verge of having water come into your home. The most likely source of trouble is ice build up on the edges of your roof. If too much heat is escaping from your attic, the roof surface can rise above the freezing point even when the outside air is below freezing. This temperature differential causes some of the rooftop snow to melt, then run down the roof as water. When this water hits the cold, unheated eaves area, it freezes. As this process of melting and freezing continues it creates a berm of ice all around the edge of the roof. When the weather finally warms up enough to melt all the snow on the roof, large amounts of water trickle down, hits the berm of ice, then forms standing pools of water on your shingles. Without a constant downward flow, this water seeps in underneath the shingles and drips down into your roof frame. You're very lucky that the water hasn't yet backed up far enough to leak into your home. The solution is to increase attic insulation levels while also boosting attic ventilation. Both these changes serve to lower the temperature of the outer roof surface, reducing or eliminating the formation of the ice berm.