Ripley County, Missouri · Doniphan
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Doniphan, Fairdealing and Naylor. 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.
With 19% of homes built before 1960 and about 16 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 15.2 times a year here, most often in May. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
19% 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.
In Ripley County, 5.19 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
28% of occupied homes in Ripley County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Missouri county median of 24.5%.
About 78 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
With 5,168 homes and around 10,708 residents, Ripley County is 630 square miles of southeast Missouri. Besides Doniphan, the county seat, the biggest communities are Fairdealing, Naylor and Oxly. The county's median home was built in 1983.
48/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Ripley County ranks 67 of 114 Missouri counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Ripley County ranks highest compared with other Missouri counties.
Ripley County is milder than most of Missouri, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. It averaged 78 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 16 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 107th.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 9 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near -3°F on February 16, 2021.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs December to February. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Nov 4 and the last spring freeze around Mar 29.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Missouri. About 15.2 days a year bring an inch or more (1st of 114), most often in May, out of 53.4 inches of total precipitation. On August 15, 2016, 5.19 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 9.37 inches (through August 16, 2016).
About 71 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; Ripley ranks 83rd, with 46% of its homes built before 1980.
Housing age is mixed: 19% of homes are pre-1960 and 25% are 2000 or newer. Ask any plumber which era your house is from and you'll know which failures to watch for.
The 1980s and 1990s account for 30% of the county's homes. If yours is from those decades, look under the sinks and at the water heater for gray plastic pipe stamped PB, which is polybutylene and leak-prone.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 21% of the housing here. Water lines in the underbelly depend on intact skirting and working heat tape, and they're usually the first to freeze in a cold snap.
23% 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
Ripley County averages 78 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Ripley County homes break down as 17% utility gas, 53% electric, 19% propane and 9% wood. Wood heat is more common here than the state median. Have chimneys swept and fuel-burning appliances serviced each fall, and keep three feet clear around stoves and space heaters.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Ripley County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Carter and Oregon get more pipe-freeze nights than Ripley. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Oregon County has the oldest housing nearby, with 54% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Ripley | Missouri median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 19% | 25% | 87 of 114 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 46% | 53% | 83 of 114 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 25% | 21% | 37 of 114 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 21% | 9.8% | 7 of 114 |
| Vacant homes | 23% | 15% | 24 of 114 |
| Wood or propane heat | 28% | 25% | 49 of 114 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 16/yr | 28/yr | 107 of 114 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 15/yr | 10/yr | 1 of 114 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 71/yr | 77/yr | 95 of 114 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 78/yr | 65/yr | 9 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 Ripley County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in March, May 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