Ford County, Illinois · Paxton
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Ford County averages 40 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to March, and 58% of its homes predate 1960.
June brings the most downpours to Ford County, part of 7.9 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
58% 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 Ford County, 3.31 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
16% of occupied homes in Ford County heat mainly with wood or propane, close to the Illinois county median of 16.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 36 times a year in Ford County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Ford County covers 486 square miles of northeast Illinois, with about 13,406 residents and 6,263 homes. Besides Paxton, the county seat, the biggest communities are Gibson City, Piper City and Roberts. It has some of the oldest housing in the state: the median home went up in 1955.
63/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Ford County ranks 10 of 102 Illinois counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Ford County ranks highest compared with other Illinois counties.
Ford is on the colder side of Illinois for pipes. It averaged 116 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 40 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 102 Illinois counties that's 32nd.
The longest cold spell was straight 16 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about -19°F on January 31, 2019. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
Most freezing nights fall from November to March, 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 Oct 23 and the last spring freeze around Apr 21.
Rainfall is about average for Illinois. About 7.9 days a year bring an inch or more (61st of 102), most often in June, out of 40.5 inches of total precipitation. On August 6, 2023, 3.31 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.83 inches (through June 27, 2021).
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 88 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 82% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Ford among the oldest housing stocks of Illinois's 102 counties.
58% were built before 1960. Homes from that era often still have galvanized steel supply pipe, which rusts from the inside until it pinholes, and cast iron drains that crack with age. Slow leaks behind walls are a common start to water damage in these houses.
Beyond water
Ford County averages 36 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in June. 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 Ford County's occupied homes: 65% utility gas, 18% electric, 15% propane and under 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 Ford County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Kankakee and Livingston get more pipe-freeze nights than Ford. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Ford | Illinois median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 58% | 38% | 1 of 102 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 82% | 66% | 2 of 102 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 6.1% | 15% | 101 of 102 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 2% | 5.6% | 87 of 102 |
| Vacant homes | 6.9% | 11% | 86 of 102 |
| Wood or propane heat | 16% | 17% | 57 of 102 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 40/yr | 35/yr | 32 of 102 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 7.9/yr | 8.4/yr | 61 of 102 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 88/yr | 81/yr | 19 of 102 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 36/yr | 51/yr | 83 of 102 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Illinois county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Ford County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in May, June and August.
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