Gosper County, Nebraska · Elwood
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With 36% of homes built before 1960 and about 64 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
May brings the most downpours to Gosper County, part of 3.6 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Gosper County gets about 3.6 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Gosper County, 3.84 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
15% of occupied homes in Gosper County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Nebraska county median of 19.4%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 23 times a year in Gosper County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 1,212 homes and around 2,040 residents, Gosper County is 458 square miles of southern Nebraska. Elwood is the county seat; Smithfield is the next largest community. Half the homes here were built before 1973, half after.
33/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Gosper County ranks 89 of 93 Nebraska counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Gosper County ranks highest compared with other Nebraska counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Gosper County sits near the middle of the state. It averaged 150 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 64 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 46th.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 14 days below freezing (ending March 2019), and the low bottomed out near -27°F on February 15, 2021.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs November to March. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 15 and end around Apr 29.
Gosper gets fewer downpours than most Nebraska counties, but they still fill basements. Of roughly 22.9 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 3.6 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 66th of 93. May, June and July see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.84 inches, July 9, 2019. The worst three-day stretch dropped 4.49 inches, ending July 10, 2019, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 122 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
Nebraska's 93 counties range widely in housing age; Gosper ranks 78th, with 64% of its homes built before 1980.
Older and newer homes sit side by side here: 36% predate 1960 and 15% are from 2000 or later. Corroded pipe is the typical failure in the first group, burst supply hoses in the second.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 9% 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.
With 31% of homes empty at survey time, landlords and seasonal owners should shut off the main or schedule checks in winter. An unheated vacant house is also where many policies limit freeze coverage.
Beyond water
About 23 nights a year in Gosper County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (54th of 93 counties). May is the wettest month. 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, Gosper County homes break down as 34% utility gas, 47% electric, 13% propane and 2% wood. Fires here are likelier to start in the kitchen or the wiring than in the furnace. After any fire, keep the HVAC off until ducts are checked, or soot will travel through the house.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Gosper County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Dawson and Frontier get more pipe-freeze nights than Gosper. Furnas County has the oldest housing nearby, with 84% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Gosper | Nebraska median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 36% | 49% | 79 of 93 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 64% | 73% | 78 of 93 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 15% | 12% | 29 of 93 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 8.9% | 5% | 15 of 93 |
| Vacant homes | 31% | 14% | 7 of 93 |
| Wood or propane heat | 15% | 19% | 68 of 93 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 64/yr | 64/yr | 46 of 93 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 3.6/yr | 5.1/yr | 66 of 93 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 122/yr | 112/yr | 34 of 93 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 23/yr | 27/yr | 54 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 Gosper 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