Comanche County, Kansas · Coldwater
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Coldwater, Protection and Wilmore. 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.
With 64% of homes built before 1960 and about 34 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
May brings the most downpours to Comanche County, part of 6 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
64% 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.
Comanche County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.05 inches, and about 100 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
20% of occupied homes in Comanche County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Kansas county median of 16.9%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 64 times a year in Comanche County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Comanche County covers 788 square miles of southern Kansas, with about 1,729 residents and 1,016 homes. Coldwater is the county seat; Protection and Wilmore are the next largest communities. It has some of the oldest housing in the state: the median home went up in 1947.
56/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Comanche County ranks 28 of 105 Kansas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Comanche County ranks highest compared with other Kansas counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Comanche County sits near the middle of the state. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 34 nights a year at or below 20°F (69th of 105) and 112 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
On February 16, 2021 the low fell to about -13°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 12 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 February. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 26 and end around Apr 10.
Rainfall is about average for Kansas. Of roughly 25.5 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 6 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 67th of 105. May, June and September see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.05 inches, May 21, 2019. The worst three-day stretch dropped 5.05 inches, ending October 10, 2018, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
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
84% of homes in Comanche County predate 1980, above the Kansas county median of 73.7%, which ranks 11th of Kansas's 105 counties.
Before 1960 is when 64% of these homes went up. Galvanized supply lines and cast iron drains were standard then, and after 60-plus years both corrode and crack, often out of sight inside a wall or under a slab.
The Census counted 19% of homes as vacant, above the Kansas county median of 14.9%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
Comanche County averages 64 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Comanche County homes break down as 62% utility gas, 17% electric, 20% propane and under 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 Comanche County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Clark and Kiowa get more pipe-freeze nights than Comanche. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Comanche | Kansas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 64% | 48% | 6 of 105 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 84% | 74% | 11 of 105 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 5.4% | 11% | 91 of 105 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 3.9% | 5.6% | 72 of 105 |
| Vacant homes | 19% | 15% | 26 of 105 |
| Wood or propane heat | 20% | 17% | 42 of 105 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 34/yr | 39/yr | 69 of 105 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6/yr | 6.8/yr | 67 of 105 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 100/yr | 97/yr | 49 of 105 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 64/yr | 59/yr | 40 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 Comanche County: freezing from November to February, heavy rain in May, June 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