Cottonwood County, Minnesota · Windom
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With 46% of homes built before 1960 and about 83 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 6.8 times a year here, most often in May. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Cottonwood County gets about 6.8 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Cottonwood County, 3.12 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
19% of occupied homes in Cottonwood County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Minnesota county median of 30%.
With 20 muggy nights a year, mold in Cottonwood County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 5,168 homes and around 11,458 residents, Cottonwood County is 640 square miles of southwest Minnesota. Windom is the county seat; Mountain Lake, Westbrook and Jeffers are the next largest communities. Half the homes here were built before 1963, half after.
66/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Cottonwood County ranks 9 of 87 Minnesota counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Cottonwood County ranks highest compared with other Minnesota counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Cottonwood County sits near the middle of the state. It averaged 154 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 83 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 57th.
On January 31, 2019 the low fell to about -28°F, and in the stretch ending March 2019 the county went 34 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 13 and end around Apr 30.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Minnesota. Of roughly 32.9 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 6.8 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 15th of 87. May, June and July see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.12 inches, July 17, 2016. The worst three-day stretch dropped 5.4 inches, ending June 23, 2024, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 85 days a year. Each cycle melts and refreezes water at roof edges and in foundation cracks, which is how ice dams and basement seepage get started.
Housing
78% of homes in Cottonwood County predate 1980, above the Minnesota county median of 58.4%, which ranks 8th of Minnesota's 87 counties.
In Cottonwood County 46% 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.
Beyond water
Cottonwood County averages 20 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally 30 to 50%. Basements can pass 60% on their own in summer, so a dehumidifier matters even without a leak, and anything wet should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Cottonwood County's occupied homes: 62% utility gas, 13% electric, 18% propane and 2% 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 Cottonwood County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Murray and Redwood get more pipe-freeze nights than Cottonwood. Jackson County has the oldest housing nearby, with 80% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Cottonwood | Minnesota median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 46% | 34% | 23 of 87 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 78% | 58% | 8 of 87 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 8.7% | 21% | 82 of 87 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 0.7% | 3.8% | 86 of 87 |
| Vacant homes | 10% | 11% | 48 of 87 |
| Wood or propane heat | 19% | 30% | 67 of 87 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 83/yr | 89/yr | 57 of 87 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6.8/yr | 5.3/yr | 15 of 87 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 85/yr | 86/yr | 54 of 87 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 20/yr | 13/yr | 14 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 Cottonwood County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in May, June and July.
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