McCook County, South Dakota
Gutter cleaning, repair and new gutters in Salem, SD
Rain in Salem adds up to about 27 inches in a normal year, with about 6 days that bring an inch or more. The wettest season is summer (June to August), with about 10.2 inches; the driest is winter (December to February), with 2.0. Every 1,000 square feet of roof sheds about 16,700 gallons a year, and all of it goes through the gutters.
Call (866) 228-6229 free call to a gutter contractor serving SalemSalem: rain and roofs
NOAA station USC00395360, 4 miBars to one scale; the longest is summer (June to August).
For days with an inch of rain or more, Salem ranks 11th for heavy-rain days of the 54 places in South Dakota on this site (6.3 a year). By the age of its homes it sits near the middle of the 54 places in South Dakota on this site (half built by 1972). The first frost here ranks 6th earliest for the first fall frost of the 54 places in South Dakota on this site (September 29).
When to clean gutters in Salem
The first fall frost comes around September 29 in a typical year here, and the last spring frost around May 7 (median dates, NOAA normals). Plan the fall visit for after the frost, when the trees over the roof have finished dropping, and the spring visit for after the pollen and catkins.
When to clean gutters explains how the trees over a roof change the schedule.
Gutter and downspout size for Salem rain
What overwhelms a gutter is a burst, not a season. In Salem the five-minute rain expected about once in ten years falls at 7.61 inches an hour (NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 8). At that rate one 2-by-3-inch downspout drains about 950 square feet of roof and one 3-by-4-inch downspout about 1,890, by the rule in the Copper Development Association’s design handbook. Try your own roof in the gutter and downspout calculator, which starts from this figure.
Salem averages about 31 inches of snow a year (NOAA normals). Snow on a roof brings ice dams: heat escaping from the house melts the snow, and the water refreezes at the cold eave, in the gutter and over it. University of Minnesota Extension puts the cause in the attic, not in the gutter, so a gutter that fills with ice is a symptom; hangers spaced to carry ice and a sound fascia are what the gutter itself needs.
The houses in Salem
Half the homes in Salem were built by 1972, 63% before 1980 (ACS 2020–2024). In a neighborhood that age, many houses are on their second set of gutters or due for one, and the fascia board behind them is worth checking at the same visit. On a house built before 1978, replacing more than 20 square feet of painted fascia or trim falls under the EPA’s lead-safe rule, so ask whether the crew is certified.
70% of households own their home, and 73% of homes are detached houses, 3% townhouses. Where an HOA governs the exterior, its rules on gutter color and style apply before any order is placed.
Hiring in South Dakota
Ask any contractor working in Salem what South Dakota requires of them for gutter work, and to show proof of insurance. Hiring a gutter contractor
Gutter work in Salem
With half the homes built by 1972, replacement gutters and the fascia behind them come up more often here than in newer suburbs. The line takes all of it: