Winston County, Mississippi · Louisville
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Pipes freeze in Winston County on about 3 nights a year, mostly January. Older homes, 15% of the stock here, are most at risk.
February brings the most downpours to Winston County, part of 15.9 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
15% 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.
Winston County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 4.16 inches, and about 41 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
25% of occupied homes in Winston County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Mississippi county median of 15.1%.
About 116 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
Winston County covers 607 square miles of eastern Mississippi, with about 17,536 residents and 8,231 homes. The county seat is Louisville, and Noxapater is the other large town. Half the homes here were built before 1978, half after.
47/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Winston County ranks 47 of 82 Mississippi counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Winston County ranks highest compared with other Mississippi counties.
Winston County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Mississippi. It averaged 42 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 3 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 82 Mississippi counties that's 28th.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 3 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near 7°F on December 23, 2022.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs January. 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 Nov 12 and end around Mar 15.
Rainfall is about average for Mississippi. About 15.9 days a year bring an inch or more (49th of 82), most often in February, out of 57.3 inches of total precipitation. On August 31, 2021, 4.16 inches fell in a single day. The worst three-day stretch dropped 5.6 inches, ending July 16, 2019, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 41 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 54% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Winston among the oldest housing stocks of Mississippi's 82 counties.
Housing age is mixed: 15% of homes are pre-1960 and 20% are 2000 or newer. Ask any plumber which era your house is from and you'll know which failures to watch for.
About 26% 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.
Here 13% of housing is manufactured homes. Check the skirting and the heat tape on the main water line every fall, because that one exposed line is what freezes.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 116 times a year here, close to the Mississippi county median of 125. 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 expectMain heating fuel in Winston County's occupied homes: 29% utility gas, 45% electric, 23% propane and 2% wood. Propane heat is more common here than in most Mississippi 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 Winston County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Choctaw gets more pipe-freeze nights than Winston. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Winston | Mississippi median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 15% | 15% | 38 of 82 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 54% | 45% | 12 of 82 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 20% | 23% | 57 of 82 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 13% | 20% | 62 of 82 |
| Vacant homes | 13% | 17% | 66 of 82 |
| Wood or propane heat | 25% | 15% | 17 of 82 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 3/yr | 3/yr | 28 of 82 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 16/yr | 16/yr | 49 of 82 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 41/yr | 32/yr | 18 of 82 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 116/yr | 125/yr | 59 of 82 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Mississippi county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Winston County: freezing from January, heavy rain in January, February and April.
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