Madison County, Illinois · Edwardsville
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Granite City, Edwardsville and Alton. 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 Madison County on about 26 nights a year, mostly December to February. Older homes, 36% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 10 times a year here, most often in July. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Madison County gets about 10 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 69 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
6% of occupied homes in Madison County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Illinois county median of 16.5%.
With 74 muggy nights a year, mold in Madison County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
About 264,238 people live in Madison County, 716 square miles in southern Illinois, in roughly 119,168 homes. Edwardsville is the county seat; Granite City, Alton and Collinsville are the next largest communities. The county's median home was built in 1971.
50/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Madison County ranks 51 of 102 Illinois counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Madison County ranks highest compared with other Illinois counties.
Madison County is milder than most of Illinois, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. From 2015–2024 it averaged 26 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 86 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 72nd of 102 counties.
On January 1, 2018 the low fell to about -6°F, and in the stretch ending January 2018 the county went 14 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs December to February. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 25 and the last spring freeze around Apr 5.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Illinois. The county gets about 43.7 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 10 days of an inch or more (32nd of 102). Those downpours cluster in April, July and August, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 4.29 inches on December 27, 2015. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 7.81 inches (through December 29, 2015).
About 69 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
Illinois's 102 counties range widely in housing age; Madison ranks 70th, with 61% of its homes built before 1980.
19% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of Illinois. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps and storms.
Beyond water
Madison County averages 74 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in July. 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 Madison County it's 61% utility gas, 32% electric, 6% 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 Madison County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Bond, Jersey, Macoupin and Montgomery get more pipe-freeze nights than Madison. Montgomery County has the oldest housing nearby, with 71% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Madison | Illinois median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 36% | 38% | 62 of 102 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 61% | 66% | 70 of 102 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 19% | 15% | 24 of 102 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 2.2% | 5.6% | 85 of 102 |
| Vacant homes | 7.6% | 11% | 82 of 102 |
| Wood or propane heat | 6.1% | 17% | 85 of 102 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 26/yr | 35/yr | 72 of 102 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 10/yr | 8.4/yr | 32 of 102 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 69/yr | 81/yr | 80 of 102 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 74/yr | 51/yr | 17 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 Madison County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in April, July 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