Christian County, Missouri · Ozark
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Nixa, Ozark and Clever. 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.
Pipes freeze in Christian County on about 23 nights a year, mostly December to February. Older homes, 7% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 12.4 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 Christian County gets about 12.4 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 80 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
21% of occupied homes in Christian County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Missouri county median of 24.5%.
With 59 muggy nights a year, mold in Christian County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Christian County covers 563 square miles of southern Missouri, with about 92,915 residents and 36,643 homes. Besides Ozark, the county seat, the biggest communities are Nixa, Clever and Sparta. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1999.
34/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Christian County ranks 109 of 114 Missouri counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Christian County ranks highest compared with other Missouri counties.
Christian County is milder than most of Missouri, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. It averaged 90 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 23 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 114 Missouri counties that's 79th.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 12 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near -14°F on February 16, 2021.
Most freezing nights fall from December to February, 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 25 and the last spring freeze around Apr 11.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Missouri. About 12.4 days a year bring an inch or more (22nd of 114), most often in May, out of 49.3 inches of total precipitation. On April 30, 2017, 5.28 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 8.62 inches (through December 29, 2015).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 80 times a year here. They're the main driver of ice dams and of water working its way through foundation cracks in late winter.
Housing
Missouri's 114 counties range widely in housing age; Christian ranks 114th, with 18% of its homes built before 1980.
48% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of Missouri. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps and storms.
About 34% 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.
Beyond water
Christian County averages 59 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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 Christian County's occupied homes: 40% utility gas, 37% electric, 18% propane and 3% 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 Christian County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Greene and Webster get more pipe-freeze nights than Christian. Lawrence County has the oldest housing nearby, with 51% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Christian | Missouri median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 6.7% | 25% | 113 of 114 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 18% | 53% | 114 of 114 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 48% | 21% | 1 of 114 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 3.2% | 9.8% | 107 of 114 |
| Vacant homes | 4.1% | 15% | 112 of 114 |
| Wood or propane heat | 21% | 25% | 71 of 114 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 23/yr | 28/yr | 79 of 114 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 12/yr | 10/yr | 22 of 114 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 80/yr | 77/yr | 40 of 114 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 59/yr | 65/yr | 73 of 114 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Missouri county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Christian County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in March, May and October.
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