Rooks County, Kansas · Stockton
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Pipes freeze in Rooks County on about 49 nights a year, mostly November to March. Older homes, 64% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in May. Rooks County averages 4.7 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Rooks County spike on heavy-rain days, about 4.7 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 116 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
14% of occupied homes in Rooks 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 41 times a year in Rooks County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Rooks County covers 891 square miles of northern Kansas, with about 4,813 residents and 2,635 homes. Stockton is the county seat; Plainville, Palco and Damar are the next largest communities. It has some of the oldest housing in the state: the median home went up in 1953.
62/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Rooks County ranks 10 of 105 Kansas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Rooks County ranks highest compared with other Kansas counties.
Rooks County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Kansas. From 2015–2024 it averaged 49 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 135 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 22nd of 105 counties.
On February 15, 2021 the low fell to about -19°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.
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.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 22 and end around Apr 26.
Rooks gets fewer downpours than most Kansas counties, but they still fill basements. About 4.7 days a year bring an inch or more (78th of 105), most often in May, out of 23 inches of total precipitation. On September 4, 2016, 3.17 inches fell in a single day. The worst three-day stretch dropped 3.44 inches, ending April 18, 2016, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 116 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 87% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Rooks among the oldest housing stocks of Kansas's 105 counties.
In Rooks County 64% of homes are older than 1960. If yours is one of them and the plumbing has never been replaced, expect galvanized steel supply pipe and cast iron drain lines, the two materials most likely to fail quietly.
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
Rooks County averages 41 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 expectMain heating fuel in Rooks County's occupied homes: 67% utility gas, 17% electric, 12% propane and 2% wood. Most homes here heat with gas or electricity, so cooking and electrical faults are the likelier fire sources. Even a contained kitchen fire can send soot through the ductwork to every room.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Rooks County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Graham and Smith get more pipe-freeze nights than Rooks. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Rooks | Kansas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 64% | 48% | 7 of 105 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 87% | 74% | 2 of 105 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 7.1% | 11% | 81 of 105 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 5.4% | 5.6% | 56 of 105 |
| Vacant homes | 19% | 15% | 26 of 105 |
| Wood or propane heat | 14% | 17% | 66 of 105 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 49/yr | 39/yr | 22 of 105 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 4.7/yr | 6.8/yr | 78 of 105 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 116/yr | 97/yr | 23 of 105 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 41/yr | 59/yr | 81 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 Rooks County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in May, 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