Wilkinson County, Georgia · Irwinton
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Wilkinson County averages 1 night a year at 20°F or colder, mostly midwinter, and 21% of its homes predate 1960.
December brings the most downpours to Wilkinson County, part of 10.6 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Wilkinson County gets about 10.6 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Wilkinson County, 6.12 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
12% of occupied homes in Wilkinson County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Georgia county median of 7.1%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 118 times a year in Wilkinson County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 8,747 people live in Wilkinson County, 449 square miles in central Georgia, in roughly 4,304 homes. The county seat is Irwinton, and Gordon, Ivey and McIntyre round out the largest towns. Half the homes here were built before 1982, half after.
47/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Wilkinson County ranks 102 of 159 Georgia counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Wilkinson County ranks highest compared with other Georgia counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Wilkinson County sits near the middle of the state. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 1 night a year at or below 20°F (85th of 159) and 26 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs midwinter. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
Freezing nights typically start around Nov 23 and end around Mar 11.
Wilkinson gets fewer downpours than most Georgia counties, but they still fill basements. The county gets about 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 10.6 days of an inch or more (132nd of 159). Those downpours cluster in January, April and December, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 6.12 inches on September 17, 2020. The worst three-day stretch dropped 7.99 inches, ending September 27, 2024, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 26 times a year here. They're the main driver of ice dams and of water working its way through foundation cracks in late winter.
Housing
Roughly 45% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Wilkinson among the oldest housing stocks of Georgia's 159 counties.
In Wilkinson 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.
40% 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.
Here 33% of housing is manufactured homes. Check the skirting and the heat tape on the main water line every fall, because that one exposed line is what freezes.
19% of homes were vacant at survey time. A leak in an empty rental or seasonal house can run for days before anyone notices, which is why those losses tend to be larger.
Beyond water
Wilkinson County averages 118 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in August. 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 expectMain heating fuel in Wilkinson County's occupied homes: 13% utility gas, 75% electric, 10% propane and 2% wood. Wood and propane heat are more common here than the state median. Have chimneys swept and fuel-burning appliances serviced each fall, and keep three feet clear around stoves and space heaters.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Wilkinson County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Baldwin, Jones and Washington get more pipe-freeze nights than Wilkinson. Washington County has the oldest housing nearby, with 51% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Wilkinson | Georgia median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 21% | 15% | 37 of 159 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 45% | 38% | 40 of 159 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 15% | 27% | 155 of 159 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 33% | 21% | 23 of 159 |
| Vacant homes | 19% | 14% | 37 of 159 |
| Wood or propane heat | 12% | 7.1% | 50 of 159 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 1/yr | 2/yr | 85 of 159 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 11/yr | 12/yr | 132 of 159 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 26/yr | 29/yr | 84 of 159 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 118/yr | 112/yr | 70 of 159 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Georgia county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Wilkinson County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in January, April 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