Blaine County, Nebraska · Brewster
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With 48% of homes built before 1960 and about 72 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
May brings the most downpours to Blaine County, part of 4.1 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Sewage backups in Blaine County spike on heavy-rain days, about 4.1 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Blaine County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.36 inches, and about 127 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
66% of occupied homes in Blaine County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Nebraska county median of 19.4%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 10 times a year in Blaine County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Blaine County covers 711 square miles of central Nebraska, with about 422 residents and 301 homes. Besides Brewster, the county seat, the biggest community is Dunning. The county's median home was built in 1962.
51/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Blaine County ranks 40 of 93 Nebraska counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Blaine County ranks highest compared with other Nebraska counties.
Blaine is on the colder side of Nebraska for pipes. From 2015–2024 it averaged 72 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 160 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 17th of 93 counties.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 22 days below freezing (ending March 2019), and the low bottomed out near -28°F on February 16, 2021.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs November to April. 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 Oct 11 and the last spring freeze around May 5.
Rainfall is about average for Nebraska. Of roughly 25.7 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 4.1 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 61st of 93. May, July and August see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.36 inches, August 16, 2017. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 5.21 inches (through August 16, 2017).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 127 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
75% of homes in Blaine County predate 1980, close to the Nebraska county median of 73.1%, which ranks 36th of Nebraska's 93 counties.
Housing age is mixed: 48% of homes are pre-1960 and 8% are 2000 or newer. Ask any plumber which era your house is from and you'll know which failures to watch for.
Here 20% 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 35% of homes as vacant, above the Nebraska county median of 14.2%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
Blaine County averages 10 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 expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Blaine County it's 10% utility gas, 17% electric, 58% propane and 8% wood. Wood and propane heat are 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 Blaine County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Brown, Cherry, Logan and Thomas get more pipe-freeze nights than Blaine. Brown County has the oldest housing nearby, with 78% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Blaine | Nebraska median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 48% | 49% | 50 of 93 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 75% | 73% | 36 of 93 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 8.3% | 12% | 71 of 93 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 20% | 5% | 2 of 93 |
| Vacant homes | 35% | 14% | 6 of 93 |
| Wood or propane heat | 66% | 19% | 8 of 93 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 72/yr | 64/yr | 17 of 93 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 4.1/yr | 5.1/yr | 61 of 93 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 127/yr | 112/yr | 26 of 93 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 10/yr | 27/yr | 69 of 93 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Nebraska county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Blaine County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in May, July 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