Scott County, Missouri · Benton
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With 25% of homes built before 1960 and about 14 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Basements flood here mostly in March. Scott County averages 12.8 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Scott County spike on heavy-rain days, about 12.8 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Scott County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.03 inches, and about 58 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
9% of occupied homes in Scott County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Missouri county median of 24.5%.
With 86 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 420 square miles of southeast Missouri, with about 37,933 residents and 16,861 homes. Besides Benton, the county seat, the biggest communities are Sikeston, Scott City and Chaffee. The county's median home was built in 1976.
51/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Scott County ranks 58 of 114 Missouri counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Scott County ranks highest compared with other Missouri counties.
Scott County is milder than most of Missouri, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. From 2015–2024 it averaged 14 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 67 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 108th of 114 counties.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 11 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near -6°F on February 19, 2015.
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 Nov 7 and the last spring freeze around Mar 24.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Missouri. The county gets about 50.7 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 12.8 days of an inch or more (16th of 114). Those downpours cluster in February, March and April, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 3.03 inches on October 29, 2020. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 6.73 inches (through August 5, 2023).
About 58 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 60% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Scott among the oldest housing stocks of Missouri's 114 counties.
Housing age is mixed: 25% of homes are pre-1960 and 16% are 2000 or newer. Ask any plumber which era your house is from and you'll know which failures to watch for.
24% 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.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 10% 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.
Beyond water
About 86 nights a year in Scott County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (7th of 114 counties). March 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: 33% utility gas, 57% electric, 8% propane and 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
Cape Girardeau gets more pipe-freeze nights than Scott. All of its neighbors see more heavy-rain days. Mississippi County has the oldest housing nearby, with 64% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Scott | Missouri median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 25% | 25% | 60 of 114 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 60% | 53% | 37 of 114 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 16% | 21% | 92 of 114 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 10% | 9.8% | 52 of 114 |
| Vacant homes | 9.1% | 15% | 94 of 114 |
| Wood or propane heat | 9.3% | 25% | 101 of 114 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 14/yr | 28/yr | 108 of 114 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 13/yr | 10/yr | 16 of 114 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 58/yr | 77/yr | 109 of 114 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 86/yr | 65/yr | 7 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 Scott County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in February, March 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