Taney County, Missouri · Forsyth
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With 7% of homes built before 1960 and about 20 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
May brings the most downpours to Taney County, part of 14 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
7% 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 Taney County, 4.82 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
13% of occupied homes in Taney County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Missouri county median of 24.5%.
With 64 muggy nights a year, mold in Taney County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 30,175 homes and around 56,529 residents, Taney County is 632 square miles of southern Missouri. Besides Forsyth, the county seat, the biggest communities are Branson, Hollister and Merriam Woods. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1995.
37/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Taney County ranks 106 of 114 Missouri counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Taney County ranks highest compared with other Missouri counties.
Taney County is milder than most of Missouri, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 20 nights a year at or below 20°F (94th of 114) and 86 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 10 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near -11°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 26 and the last spring freeze around Apr 10.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Missouri. Of roughly 51.5 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 14 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 3rd of 114. March, April and May see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 4.82 inches, April 30, 2017. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 8.24 inches (through November 5, 2024).
About 77 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 25% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Taney among the newer housing stocks of Missouri's 114 counties.
38% 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 37% 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 12% 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.
The Census counted 25% of homes as vacant, above the Missouri county median of 15.3%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Renters occupy 33% of homes. If you rent, the building is usually the landlord's to repair, but your belongings are only covered by renters insurance.
Beyond water
About 64 nights a year in Taney County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (58th of 114 counties). May is the wettest month. 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 Taney County it's 4% utility gas, 82% electric, 9% propane and 4% 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 Taney County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Christian gets more pipe-freeze nights than Taney. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Ozark County has the oldest housing nearby, with 51% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Taney | Missouri median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 7% | 25% | 111 of 114 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 25% | 53% | 111 of 114 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 38% | 21% | 6 of 114 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 12% | 9.8% | 34 of 114 |
| Vacant homes | 25% | 15% | 19 of 114 |
| Wood or propane heat | 13% | 25% | 95 of 114 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 20/yr | 28/yr | 94 of 114 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 14/yr | 10/yr | 3 of 114 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 77/yr | 77/yr | 55 of 114 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 64/yr | 65/yr | 58 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 Taney County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in March, April and May.
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