Dickinson County, Michigan · Iron Mountain
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Iron Mountain, Kingsford and Norway. 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 41% of homes built before 1960 and about 100 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Basements flood here mostly in June. Dickinson County averages 3.4 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
41% 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.
Dickinson County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 2.22 inches, and about 108 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
22% of occupied homes in Dickinson 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 once a year in Dickinson County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 25,954 people live in Dickinson County, 761 square miles in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, in roughly 13,951 homes. The county seat is Iron Mountain, and Kingsford, Norway and Quinnesec round out the largest towns. Half the homes here were built before 1970, half after.
60/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Dickinson County ranks 20 of 83 Michigan counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Dickinson County ranks highest compared with other Michigan counties.
Dickinson County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Michigan. It averaged 185 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 100 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 83 Michigan counties that's 5th.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 41 days below freezing (ending March 2015), and the low bottomed out near -26°F on February 23, 2015.
Most freezing nights fall from November to April, peaking in January. Disconnect garden hoses and shut off outdoor spigots before the first hard frost, and keep the heat at 55°F or higher if you'll be away.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 4 and end around May 22.
Dickinson gets fewer downpours than most Michigan counties, but they still fill basements. Of roughly 31.6 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 3.4 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 60th of 83. May, June and September see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 2.22 inches, September 5, 2018. The worst three-day stretch dropped 3.21 inches, ending June 18, 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 108 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
Michigan's 83 counties range widely in housing age; Dickinson ranks 21st, with 66% of its homes built before 1980.
In Dickinson County 41% 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.
About 24% of homes went up between 1980 and 1999. Some houses from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s were plumbed with polybutylene, a gray plastic pipe known for failing at fittings. A plumber can tell you in a few minutes whether you have it.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about once a year here, below the Michigan county median of 10. 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, Dickinson County homes break down as 68% utility gas, 9% electric, 18% propane and 4% 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 Dickinson County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Iron and Marquette get more pipe-freeze nights than Dickinson. Marquette County has the oldest housing nearby, with 68% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Dickinson | Michigan median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 41% | 32% | 17 of 83 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 66% | 58% | 21 of 83 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 11% | 16% | 75 of 83 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 4.6% | 7.3% | 67 of 83 |
| Vacant homes | 15% | 20% | 51 of 83 |
| Wood or propane heat | 22% | 29% | 58 of 83 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 100/yr | 54/yr | 5 of 83 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 3.4/yr | 3.9/yr | 60 of 83 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 108/yr | 95/yr | 2 of 83 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 1/yr | 10/yr | 77 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 Dickinson County: freezing from November to April, 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