Clinton County, Michigan · St. Johns
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Clinton County averages 44 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to March, and 26% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in August. Clinton County averages 4.6 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Clinton County gets about 4.6 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 91 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
21% of occupied homes in Clinton County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Michigan county median of 29%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 22 times a year in Clinton County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 79,626 people live in Clinton County, 567 square miles in southwest Michigan, in roughly 33,315 homes. The county seat is St. Johns, and DeWitt, Bath and Wacousta round out the largest towns. The county's median home was built in 1981.
49/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Clinton County ranks 44 of 83 Michigan counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Clinton County ranks highest compared with other Michigan counties.
Clinton County is milder than most of Michigan, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 44 nights a year at or below 20°F (58th of 83) and 130 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 21 days below freezing (ending March 2015), and the low bottomed out near -18°F on February 20, 2015.
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 23 and the last spring freeze around Apr 29.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Michigan. The county gets about 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 4.6 days of an inch or more (24th of 83). Those downpours cluster in June, August and October, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 2.97 inches on August 16, 2016. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.51 inches (through June 27, 2021).
About 91 days a year swing from below freezing at night to above freezing by day. Those freeze-thaw cycles feed ice dams on roofs, open cracks in foundations and driveways, and stress pipes that are already marginal.
Housing
49% of homes in Clinton County predate 1980, below the Michigan county median of 58.4%, which ranks 73rd of Michigan's 83 counties.
28% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of Michigan. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps and storms.
23% date from 1980 to 1999, the window when polybutylene, a gray flexible plastic supply pipe, was used in some homes. It's prone to leaks at the fittings, so it's worth checking for in a house from those years.
Beyond water
About 22 nights a year in Clinton County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (13th of 83 counties). August is the wettest month. 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, Clinton County homes break down as 62% utility gas, 12% electric, 18% propane and 3% wood. Fires here are likelier to start in the kitchen or the wiring than in the furnace. After any fire, keep the HVAC off until ducts are checked, or soot will travel through the house.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Clinton County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Gratiot and Ionia get more pipe-freeze nights than Clinton. Shiawassee County has the oldest housing nearby, with 70% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Clinton | Michigan median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 26% | 32% | 53 of 83 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 49% | 58% | 73 of 83 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 28% | 16% | 5 of 83 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 6.1% | 7.3% | 52 of 83 |
| Vacant homes | 5% | 20% | 79 of 83 |
| Wood or propane heat | 21% | 29% | 60 of 83 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 44/yr | 54/yr | 58 of 83 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 4.6/yr | 3.9/yr | 24 of 83 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 91/yr | 95/yr | 53 of 83 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 22/yr | 10/yr | 13 of 83 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Michigan county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Clinton County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in June, August and October.
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