Union County, Arkansas · El Dorado
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves El Dorado, Smackover and Norphlet. 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.
Union County averages 3 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly January, and 21% of its homes predate 1960.
April brings the most downpours to Union County, part of 18.2 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
21% of homes here predate 1960, when clay and cast iron sewer laterals were standard. Roots and cracks in those lines are a common cause of backups.
In Union County, 4.94 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
5% of occupied homes in Union County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Arkansas county median of 10.9%.
With 116 muggy nights a year, mold in Union County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 18,649 homes and around 37,900 residents, Union County is 1,039 square miles of southern Arkansas. The county seat is El Dorado, and Smackover, Norphlet and Junction City round out the largest towns. The county's median home was built in 1979.
59/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Union County ranks 17 of 75 Arkansas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Union County ranks highest compared with other Arkansas counties.
Union County is milder than most of Arkansas, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. It averaged 40 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 3 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 75 Arkansas counties that's 68th.
On February 17, 2021 the low fell to about 8°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 4 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
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.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Nov 13 and the last spring freeze around Mar 9.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Arkansas. The county gets about 60.4 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 18.2 days of an inch or more (17th of 75). Those downpours cluster in January, March and April, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 4.94 inches on March 9, 2016. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 10.58 inches (through March 11, 2016).
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 38 days a year. Each cycle melts and refreezes water at roof edges and in foundation cracks, which is how ice dams and basement seepage get started.
Housing
Roughly 51% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Union among the oldest housing stocks of Arkansas's 75 counties.
In Union County 21% 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.
26% date from 1980 to 1999, the window when polybutylene, a gray flexible plastic supply pipe, was used in some homes. It's prone to leaks at the fittings, so it's worth checking for in a house from those years.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 20% of the housing here. Water lines in the underbelly depend on intact skirting and working heat tape, and they're usually the first to freeze in a cold snap.
Beyond water
Union County averages 116 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in April. 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 Union County it's 41% utility gas, 54% electric, 4% propane and under 1% wood. Most homes here heat with gas or electricity, so cooking and electrical faults are the likelier fire sources. Even a contained kitchen fire can send soot through the ductwork to every room.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Union County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Calhoun and Ouachita get more pipe-freeze nights than Union. Ouachita County has the oldest housing nearby, with 62% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Union | Arkansas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 21% | 15% | 9 of 75 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 51% | 46% | 24 of 75 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 23% | 23% | 40 of 75 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 20% | 15% | 17 of 75 |
| Vacant homes | 20% | 18% | 30 of 75 |
| Wood or propane heat | 4.5% | 11% | 67 of 75 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 3/yr | 6/yr | 68 of 75 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 18/yr | 17/yr | 17 of 75 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 38/yr | 48/yr | 56 of 75 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 116/yr | 105/yr | 16 of 75 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Arkansas county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Union County: freezing from January, heavy rain in January, March and April.
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