Scott County, Minnesota · Shakopee
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With 9% of homes built before 1960 and about 77 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Basements flood here mostly in July. Scott County averages 5.9 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Scott County spike on heavy-rain days, about 5.9 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Scott County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.48 inches, and about 82 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
4% of occupied homes in Scott County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Minnesota county median of 30%.
With 22 muggy nights a year, mold in Scott County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Scott County covers 356 square miles of southern Minnesota, with about 154,557 residents and 56,671 homes. Besides Shakopee, the county seat, the biggest communities are Savage, Prior Lake and New Prague. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1997.
35/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Scott County ranks 78 of 87 Minnesota counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Scott County ranks highest compared with other Minnesota counties.
Scott County is milder than most of Minnesota, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. From 2015–2024 it averaged 77 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 147 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 78th of 87 counties.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 24 days below freezing (ending March 2015), and the low bottomed out near -29°F on January 31, 2019.
Most freezing nights fall from November to March, 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.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 21 and the last spring freeze around Apr 28.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Minnesota. The county gets about 31.9 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 5.9 days of an inch or more (25th of 87). Those downpours cluster in May, July and August, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 3.48 inches on August 11, 2016. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.1 inches (through August 13, 2016).
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
Roughly 23% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Scott among the newer housing stocks of Minnesota's 87 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 43% of today's homes. In houses that new, the weak points are washing machine hoses, ice maker lines, water heaters and sump pumps rather than the pipes in the walls.
34% 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 Scott County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (5th of 87 counties). August is the wettest month. 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 Scott County's occupied homes: 81% utility gas, 13% electric, 4% propane and under 1% wood. Most homes here heat with gas or electricity, so cooking and electrical faults are the likelier fire sources. Even a contained kitchen fire can send soot through the ductwork to every room.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Scott County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Carver, Hennepin, Le Sueur, Rice and Sibley get more pipe-freeze nights than Scott. Sibley County has the oldest housing nearby, with 68% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Scott | Minnesota median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 9.1% | 34% | 86 of 87 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 23% | 58% | 87 of 87 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 43% | 21% | 2 of 87 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 1.4% | 3.8% | 79 of 87 |
| Vacant homes | 3% | 11% | 85 of 87 |
| Wood or propane heat | 4.2% | 30% | 82 of 87 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 77/yr | 89/yr | 78 of 87 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 5.9/yr | 5.3/yr | 25 of 87 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 82/yr | 86/yr | 71 of 87 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 22/yr | 13/yr | 5 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 Scott 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