Wallace County, Kansas · Sharon Springs
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With 48% of homes built before 1960 and about 56 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Basements flood here mostly in May. Wallace County averages 3.5 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Wallace County spike on heavy-rain days, about 3.5 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Wallace County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 2.49 inches, and about 126 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
23% of occupied homes in Wallace 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 16 times a year in Wallace County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 1,417 people live in Wallace County, 914 square miles in western Kansas, in roughly 717 homes. Sharon Springs is the county seat; Weskan and Wallace are the next largest communities. The county's median home was built in 1961.
47/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Wallace County ranks 66 of 105 Kansas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Wallace County ranks highest compared with other Kansas counties.
Wallace is on the colder side of Kansas for pipes. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 56 nights a year at or below 20°F (11th of 105) and 145 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
The longest cold spell was straight 11 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about -22°F on February 15, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
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 17 and the last spring freeze around Apr 24.
Wallace gets fewer downpours than most Kansas counties, but they still fill basements. Of roughly 19 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 3.5 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 85th of 105. May, June and August see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 2.49 inches, May 11, 2017. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 3.3 inches (through May 12, 2017).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 126 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
82% of homes in Wallace County predate 1980, above the Kansas county median of 73.7%, which ranks 21st of Kansas's 105 counties.
Older and newer homes sit side by side here: 48% predate 1960 and 4% are from 2000 or later. Corroded pipe is the typical failure in the first group, burst supply hoses in the second.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 16 times a year here, below the Kansas county median of 59. 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 Wallace County it's 66% utility gas, 10% electric, 21% propane and 3% wood. Propane heat is more common here than in most Kansas counties. Heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fires nationally, and the NFPA recommends having chimneys and vents inspected every year.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Wallace County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Every neighboring county gets more pipe-freeze nights than Wallace. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Wichita County has the oldest housing nearby, with 87% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Wallace | Kansas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 48% | 48% | 50 of 105 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 82% | 74% | 21 of 105 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 4.3% | 11% | 101 of 105 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 2.8% | 5.6% | 91 of 105 |
| Vacant homes | 17% | 15% | 44 of 105 |
| Wood or propane heat | 23% | 17% | 34 of 105 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 56/yr | 39/yr | 11 of 105 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 3.5/yr | 6.8/yr | 85 of 105 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 126/yr | 97/yr | 7 of 105 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 16/yr | 59/yr | 102 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 Wallace 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