Le Sueur County, Minnesota · Le Center
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With 36% of homes built before 1960 and about 79 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
May brings the most downpours to Le Sueur County, part of 6 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Le Sueur County gets about 6 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Le Sueur County, 3.45 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
20% of occupied homes in Le Sueur County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Minnesota county median of 30%.
With 20 muggy nights a year, mold in Le Sueur County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Le Sueur County covers 449 square miles of southern Minnesota, with about 29,113 residents and 13,054 homes. The county seat is Le Center, and Le Sueur, Montgomery and Waterville round out the largest towns. Half the homes here were built before 1974, half after.
53/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Le Sueur County ranks 35 of 87 Minnesota counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Le Sueur County ranks highest compared with other Minnesota counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for Minnesota, and pipes still freeze. It averaged 150 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 79 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 71st.
On January 31, 2019 the low fell to about -28°F, and in the stretch ending March 2019 the county went 33 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 March. 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 14 and end around Apr 29.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Minnesota. The county gets about 33.5 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 6 days of an inch or more (23rd of 87). Those downpours cluster in May, July and August, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 3.45 inches on August 11, 2016. The worst three-day stretch dropped 4.25 inches, ending August 13, 2016, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 82 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
Minnesota's 87 counties range widely in housing age; Le Sueur ranks 47th, with 58% of its homes built before 1980.
Older and newer homes sit side by side here: 36% predate 1960 and 23% are from 2000 or later. Corroded pipe is the typical failure in the first group, burst supply hoses in the second.
Beyond water
About 20 nights a year in Le Sueur County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (14th of 87 counties). May is the wettest month. 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 Le Sueur County it's 65% utility gas, 12% electric, 18% propane and 3% 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 Le Sueur County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Sibley and Waseca get more pipe-freeze nights than Le Sueur. Waseca County has the oldest housing nearby, with 70% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Le Sueur | Minnesota median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 36% | 34% | 38 of 87 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 58% | 58% | 47 of 87 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 23% | 21% | 34 of 87 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 1.9% | 3.8% | 71 of 87 |
| Vacant homes | 11% | 11% | 46 of 87 |
| Wood or propane heat | 20% | 30% | 62 of 87 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 79/yr | 89/yr | 71 of 87 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6/yr | 5.3/yr | 23 of 87 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 82/yr | 86/yr | 71 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 Le Sueur County: freezing from November to March, 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