Cloud County, Kansas · Concordia
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Concordia, Clyde and Miltonvale. 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 Cloud County on about 40 nights a year, mostly November to March. Older homes, 58% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in May. Cloud County averages 6.3 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Cloud County spike on heavy-rain days, about 6.3 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Cloud County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 2.26 inches, and about 96 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
13% of occupied homes in Cloud County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Kansas county median of 16.9%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 58 times a year in Cloud County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 4,467 homes and around 8,898 residents, Cloud County is 715 square miles of northern Kansas. Besides Concordia, the county seat, the biggest communities are Clyde, Miltonvale and Glasco. It has some of the oldest housing in the state: the median home went up in 1953.
60/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Cloud County ranks 13 of 105 Kansas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Cloud County ranks highest compared with other Kansas counties.
For frozen pipes, Cloud County is a typical Kansas county, which is still plenty. From 2015–2024 it averaged 40 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 117 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 46th of 105 counties.
On February 16, 2021 the low fell to about -18°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 13 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
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 26 and the last spring freeze around Apr 16.
Rainfall is about average for Kansas. About 6.3 days a year bring an inch or more (59th of 105), most often in May, out of 29.1 inches of total precipitation. On July 27, 2020, 2.26 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 3.62 inches (through September 5, 2018).
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 96 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
83% of homes in Cloud County predate 1980, above the Kansas county median of 73.7%, which ranks 18th of Kansas's 105 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
Cloud County averages 58 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Cloud County homes break down as 69% utility gas, 15% electric, 11% 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 Cloud County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Jewell, Mitchell, Republic and Washington get more pipe-freeze nights than Cloud. Republic County has the oldest housing nearby, with 86% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Cloud | Kansas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 58% | 48% | 15 of 105 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 83% | 74% | 18 of 105 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 7.2% | 11% | 78 of 105 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 1.8% | 5.6% | 101 of 105 |
| Vacant homes | 15% | 15% | 56 of 105 |
| Wood or propane heat | 13% | 17% | 70 of 105 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 40/yr | 39/yr | 46 of 105 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6.3/yr | 6.8/yr | 59 of 105 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 96/yr | 97/yr | 54 of 105 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 58/yr | 59/yr | 54 of 105 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Kansas county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Cloud 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