Furnas County, Nebraska · Beaver City
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Pipes freeze in Furnas County on about 63 nights a year, mostly November to March. Older homes, 61% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in May. Furnas County averages 4.4 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Furnas County gets about 4.4 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 126 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
12% of occupied homes in Furnas County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Nebraska county median of 19.4%.
About 26 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
About 4,568 people live in Furnas County, 719 square miles in southern Nebraska, in roughly 2,516 homes. Beaver City is the county seat; Cambridge, Arapahoe and Oxford are the next largest communities. It has some of the oldest housing in the state: the median home went up in 1949.
58/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Furnas County ranks 23 of 93 Nebraska counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Furnas County ranks highest compared with other Nebraska counties.
For frozen pipes, Furnas County is a typical Nebraska county, which is still plenty. It averaged 150 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 63 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 93 Nebraska counties that's 49th.
The longest cold spell was straight 13 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about -26°F on February 15, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
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.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 15 and the last spring freeze around Apr 29.
Rainfall is about average for Nebraska. Of roughly 24 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 4.4 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 56th of 93. May, June and July see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.43 inches, July 9, 2019. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 3.93 inches (through July 10, 2019).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 126 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
Roughly 84% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Furnas among the oldest housing stocks of Nebraska's 93 counties.
In Furnas County 61% 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.
20% 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
Furnas County averages 26 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Furnas County homes break down as 60% utility gas, 27% electric, 9% propane and 3% wood. Wood heat is above the Nebraska norm. Annual chimney and vent inspection, which the NFPA recommends, is one of the most effective fire-prevention habits for these homes.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Furnas County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Frontier and Gosper get more pipe-freeze nights than Furnas. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Furnas | Nebraska median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 61% | 49% | 9 of 93 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 84% | 73% | 8 of 93 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 8.3% | 12% | 71 of 93 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 3.9% | 5% | 59 of 93 |
| Vacant homes | 20% | 14% | 30 of 93 |
| Wood or propane heat | 12% | 19% | 71 of 93 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 63/yr | 64/yr | 49 of 93 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 4.4/yr | 5.1/yr | 56 of 93 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 126/yr | 112/yr | 28 of 93 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 26/yr | 27/yr | 49 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 Furnas County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in May, June and July.
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