Knox County, Missouri · Edina
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Edina, Hurdland and Knox City. 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.
Knox County averages 44 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to March, and 43% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in June. Knox County averages 9 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Knox County spike on heavy-rain days, about 9 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 86 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
36% of occupied homes in Knox County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Missouri county median of 24.5%.
About 46 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
Knox County covers 504 square miles of northern Missouri, with about 3,756 residents and 1,937 homes. The county seat is Edina, and Hurdland, Knox City and Newark round out the largest towns. Half the homes here were built before 1965, half after.
63/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Knox County ranks 8 of 114 Missouri counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Knox County ranks highest compared with other Missouri counties.
Knox County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Missouri. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 44 nights a year at or below 20°F (11th of 114) and 117 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 15 days below freezing (ending January 2018), and the low bottomed out near -17°F on January 15, 2024.
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.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 23 and end around Apr 18.
Knox gets fewer downpours than most Missouri counties, but they still fill basements. Of roughly 39.7 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 9 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 79th of 114. June, August and October see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.58 inches, June 25, 2015. The worst three-day stretch dropped 5.05 inches, ending June 27, 2015, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 86 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
Missouri's 114 counties range widely in housing age; Knox ranks 6th, with 72% of its homes built before 1980.
In Knox County 43% 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.
Here 9% 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.
34% of homes were vacant at survey time. A leak in an empty rental or seasonal house can run for days before anyone notices, which is why those losses tend to be larger.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 46 times a year here, below the Missouri county median of 64.5. 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 expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Knox County it's 24% utility gas, 38% electric, 31% propane and 6% wood. Propane heat is more common here than in most Missouri 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 Knox County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Scotland gets more pipe-freeze nights than Knox. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Knox | Missouri median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 43% | 25% | 11 of 114 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 72% | 53% | 6 of 114 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 13% | 21% | 104 of 114 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 9.4% | 9.8% | 64 of 114 |
| Vacant homes | 34% | 15% | 7 of 114 |
| Wood or propane heat | 36% | 25% | 30 of 114 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 44/yr | 28/yr | 11 of 114 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 9/yr | 10/yr | 79 of 114 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 86/yr | 77/yr | 16 of 114 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 46/yr | 65/yr | 102 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 Knox County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in June, August 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