Wildfire smoke and your windows
Smoke leaves ash and soot on glass and screens. How to clean it off without scratching the glass or breathing it in, and when to wait.
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Gutters and ice dams in the Gallatin Valley
A blocked gutter is a summer nuisance and a winter structural problem.
In a warmer climate a blocked gutter overflows and that is the end of it. Here, water that cannot drain freezes.
How an ice dam forms. Heat escaping through the roof melts snow above the warm part of the house. The meltwater runs down to the cold eaves and freezes again. The ridge of ice grows, and water backs up behind it: under the shingles, then into the house.
Why gutters matter. A clear gutter carries meltwater away before it can freeze in place. A gutter packed with leaves is a dam before winter starts.
When to do it. In the fall, after the leaves are down and before the first hard freeze. That window is short here, and it moves every year.
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Read next
Winter light in Bozeman, and what your windows do with it
On the shortest day Bozeman gets under nine hours of daylight, and the noon sun barely clears 21 degrees. Why the low light favors south windows, and what clean glass can and cannot do.
The best time of year to wash windows in Bozeman
Late spring and early fall, for reasons you can read off a calendar: freezing nights, cottonwood season, and smoke.
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