Calhoun County, Alabama · Anniston
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Oxford, Anniston and Jacksonville. Start the steps below while you wait.
Answered 24/7 by a participating local provider. We're a referral service and don't do the work ourselves. How it works
Start here
Pick the closest match. These steps limit the damage and protect your insurance claim. Skip anything that isn't safe.
Pipes freeze in Calhoun County on about 3 nights a year, mostly January. Older homes, 23% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in February. Calhoun County averages 13.4 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Calhoun County spike on heavy-rain days, about 13.4 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 43 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
7% of occupied homes in Calhoun County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Alabama county median of 9.9%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 99 times a year in Calhoun County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 53,361 homes and around 116,090 residents, Calhoun County is 606 square miles of northeast Alabama. Besides Anniston, the county seat, the biggest communities are Oxford, Jacksonville and Saks. Half the homes here were built before 1979, half after.
50/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Calhoun County ranks 36 of 67 Alabama counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Calhoun County ranks highest compared with other Alabama counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Calhoun County sits near the middle of the state. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 3 nights a year at or below 20°F (25th of 67) and 44 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Most freezing nights fall from January, peaking in January. Disconnect garden hoses and shut off outdoor spigots before the first hard frost, and keep the heat at 55°F or higher if you'll be away.
Freezing nights typically start around Nov 13 and end around Mar 17.
Calhoun gets fewer downpours than most Alabama counties, but they still fill basements. About 13.4 days a year bring an inch or more (63rd of 67), most often in February, out of 55.6 inches of total precipitation. On June 20, 2021, 4.21 inches fell in a single day. The worst three-day stretch dropped 5.83 inches, ending December 26, 2015, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 43 days a year swing from below freezing at night to above freezing by day. Those freeze-thaw cycles feed ice dams on roofs, open cracks in foundations and driveways, and stress pipes that are already marginal.
Housing
53% of homes in Calhoun County predate 1980, above the Alabama county median of 43.5%, which ranks 7th of Alabama's 67 counties.
In Calhoun County 23% of homes are older than 1960. If yours is one of them and the plumbing has never been replaced, expect galvanized steel supply pipe and cast iron drain lines, the two materials most likely to fail quietly.
The 1980s and 1990s account for 28% of the county's homes. If yours is from those decades, look under the sinks and at the water heater for gray plastic pipe stamped PB, which is polybutylene and leak-prone.
15% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, below the Alabama county median of 21.7%. Their water lines run under the floor behind the skirting, so a torn skirt or failed heat tape freezes them faster than lines in a site-built house.
Beyond water
Calhoun County averages 99 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in February. Keep indoor humidity under 60%, as the EPA advises, and dry any leak within 24 to 48 hours; in a humid month a wet basement left alone won't dry by itself.
Mold remediation: what to expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Calhoun County it's 26% utility gas, 66% electric, 6% propane and 1% wood. Heating equipment, cooking and electrical failures cause most home fires nationally. Even a small kitchen fire can leave soot through the whole house, because smoke follows air currents into closets, ducts and attic space.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Calhoun County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Cherokee, Cleburne, Etowah and St. Clair get more pipe-freeze nights than Calhoun. All of its neighbors see more heavy-rain days. Etowah County has the oldest housing nearby, with 58% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Calhoun | Alabama median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 23% | 16% | 4 of 67 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 53% | 44% | 7 of 67 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 19% | 23% | 51 of 67 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 15% | 22% | 49 of 67 |
| Vacant homes | 16% | 16% | 35 of 67 |
| Wood or propane heat | 6.9% | 9.9% | 45 of 67 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 3/yr | 3/yr | 25 of 67 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 13/yr | 15/yr | 63 of 67 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 43/yr | 38/yr | 24 of 67 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 99/yr | 112/yr | 50 of 67 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Alabama county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Calhoun County: freezing from January, heavy rain in January, February and December.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology