Adair County, Iowa · Greenfield
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Greenfield, Stuart and Adair. 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.
Adair County averages 60 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to March, and 52% of its homes predate 1960.
August brings the most downpours to Adair County, part of 7.4 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
52% 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 Adair County, 2.76 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
29% of occupied homes in Adair County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Iowa county median of 22.1%.
About 30 nights a year here stay at 65°F or warmer, so basements and crawl spaces can grow mold even without a leak.
Local risk profile
Adair County covers 569 square miles of southwest Iowa, with about 7,460 residents and 3,568 homes. Besides Greenfield, the county seat, the biggest communities are Stuart, Adair and Fontanelle. It has some of the oldest housing in the state: the median home went up in 1958.
58/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Adair County ranks 27 of 99 Iowa counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Adair County ranks highest compared with other Iowa counties.
For frozen pipes, Adair County is a typical Iowa county, which is still plenty. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 60 nights a year at or below 20°F (52nd of 99) and 140 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 16 days below freezing (ending January 2018), and the low bottomed out near -23°F on February 16, 2021.
The freeze season here runs November to March, with January the coldest. If you travel then, leave the thermostat at 55°F or above and open sink cabinets on outside walls.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 16 and the last spring freeze around Apr 25.
Rainfall is about average for Iowa. The county gets about 35.2 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 7.4 days of an inch or more (34th of 99). Those downpours cluster in June, July and August, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 2.76 inches on August 20, 2018. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 3.84 inches (through August 22, 2017).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 100 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 77% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Adair among the oldest housing stocks of Iowa's 99 counties.
52% 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
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 30 times a year here, close to the Iowa county median of 29. Mold grows when indoor humidity stays above about 60%, the EPA's ceiling. A basement dehumidifier set to 50% and drying anything wet within 24 to 48 hours prevents most problems.
Mold remediation: what to expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Adair County it's 49% utility gas, 21% electric, 28% propane and 1% wood. Propane heat is 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 Adair County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Guthrie gets more pipe-freeze nights than Adair. Cass County has the oldest housing nearby, with 79% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Adair | Iowa median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 52% | 48% | 32 of 99 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 77% | 73% | 27 of 99 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 11% | 13% | 69 of 99 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 1.8% | 3.2% | 76 of 99 |
| Vacant homes | 9.3% | 9.5% | 51 of 99 |
| Wood or propane heat | 29% | 22% | 32 of 99 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 60/yr | 62/yr | 52 of 99 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 7.4/yr | 7.1/yr | 34 of 99 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 100/yr | 94/yr | 1 of 99 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 30/yr | 29/yr | 45 of 99 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Iowa county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Adair County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in June, 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