Bremer County, Iowa · Waverly
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Bremer County averages 69 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to March, and 40% of its homes predate 1960.
June brings the most downpours to Bremer County, part of 8.8 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
40% 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 Bremer County, 3.93 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
23% of occupied homes in Bremer County heat mainly with wood or propane, close to the Iowa county median of 22.1%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 21 times a year in Bremer County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 10,585 homes and around 25,204 residents, Bremer County is 435 square miles of northeast Iowa. The county seat is Waverly, and Denver, Sumner and Tripoli round out the largest towns. The county's median home was built in 1970.
55/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Bremer County ranks 32 of 99 Iowa counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Bremer County ranks highest compared with other Iowa counties.
Bremer is on the colder side of Iowa for pipes. It averaged 150 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 69 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 99 Iowa counties that's 26th.
On January 31, 2019 the low fell to about -30°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 17 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 November to March. 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 14 and the last spring freeze around May 1.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Iowa. Of roughly 38.8 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 8.8 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 6th of 99. June, August and September see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.93 inches, July 22, 2017. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 5.41 inches (through September 21, 2018).
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 97 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
Iowa's 99 counties range widely in housing age; Bremer ranks 61st, with 68% of its homes built before 1980.
20% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of Iowa. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps and storms.
Beyond water
Bremer County averages 21 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 Bremer County's occupied homes: 58% utility gas, 18% electric, 21% propane and 2% 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 Bremer County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Chickasaw and Fayette get more pipe-freeze nights than Bremer. Fayette County has the oldest housing nearby, with 75% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Bremer | Iowa median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 40% | 48% | 78 of 99 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 68% | 73% | 61 of 99 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 20% | 13% | 14 of 99 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 1.6% | 3.2% | 83 of 99 |
| Vacant homes | 8.2% | 9.5% | 69 of 99 |
| Wood or propane heat | 23% | 22% | 52 of 99 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 69/yr | 62/yr | 26 of 99 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 8.8/yr | 7.1/yr | 6 of 99 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 97/yr | 94/yr | 11 of 99 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 21/yr | 29/yr | 79 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 Bremer County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in June, August and September.
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