Big Stone County, Minnesota · Ortonville
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Ortonville, Graceville and Clinton. 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 51% of homes built before 1960 and about 95 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Basements flood here mostly in August. Big Stone County averages 4.9 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
51% 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.
Big Stone County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 2.92 inches, and about 90 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
42% of occupied homes in Big Stone County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Minnesota county median of 30%.
About 13 nights a year here stay at 65°F or warmer, so basements and crawl spaces can grow mold even without a leak.
Local risk profile
About 5,127 people live in Big Stone County, 499 square miles in western Minnesota, in roughly 3,001 homes. Ortonville is the county seat; Graceville, Clinton and Beardsley are the next largest communities. It has some of the oldest housing in the state: the median home went up in 1959.
62/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Big Stone County ranks 17 of 87 Minnesota counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Big Stone County ranks highest compared with other Minnesota counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Big Stone County sits near the middle of the state. It averaged 163 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 95 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 87 Minnesota counties that's 32nd.
On January 31, 2019 the low fell to about -31°F, and in the stretch ending March 2019 the county went 60 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 April. 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 10 and end around May 4.
Rainfall is about average for Minnesota. The county gets about 25.1 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 4.9 days of an inch or more (54th of 87). Those downpours cluster in May, July and August, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 2.92 inches on August 14, 2023. The worst three-day stretch dropped 4.16 inches, ending July 12, 2016, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 90 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
Roughly 75% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Big Stone among the oldest housing stocks of Minnesota's 87 counties.
In Big Stone County 51% 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 29% of homes as vacant, above the Minnesota county median of 11%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
Big Stone County averages 13 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in August. 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, Big Stone County homes break down as 34% utility gas, 19% electric, 40% propane and 2% wood. Propane heat is more common here than in most Minnesota 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 Big Stone County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Stevens gets more pipe-freeze nights than Big Stone. Lac qui Parle County has the oldest housing nearby, with 80% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Big Stone | Minnesota median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 51% | 34% | 13 of 87 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 75% | 58% | 14 of 87 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 13% | 21% | 64 of 87 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 5.4% | 3.8% | 27 of 87 |
| Vacant homes | 29% | 11% | 10 of 87 |
| Wood or propane heat | 42% | 30% | 17 of 87 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 95/yr | 89/yr | 32 of 87 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 4.9/yr | 5.3/yr | 54 of 87 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 90/yr | 86/yr | 13 of 87 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 13/yr | 13/yr | 41 of 87 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Minnesota county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Big Stone County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in May, July 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