Clinton County, New York · Plattsburgh
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Clinton County averages 80 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to April, and 37% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in October. Clinton County averages 4.5 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Clinton County gets about 4.5 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 92 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
14% of occupied homes in Clinton County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the New York county median of 19%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 11 times a year in Clinton County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 78,493 people live in Clinton County, 1,038 square miles in northeast New York, in roughly 37,658 homes. The county seat is Plattsburgh, and Dannemora, Keeseville and Rouses Point round out the largest towns. The county's median home was built in 1974.
44/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Clinton County ranks 38 of 57 New York counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Clinton County ranks highest compared with other New York counties.
Clinton is on the colder side of New York for pipes. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 80 nights a year at or below 20°F (6th of 57) and 155 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 33 days below freezing (ending March 2015), and the low bottomed out near -22°F on February 5, 2023.
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 13 and the last spring freeze around May 10.
Clinton gets fewer downpours than most New York counties, but they still fill basements. The county gets about 37.5 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 4.5 days of an inch or more (42nd of 57). Those downpours cluster in June, August and October, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 2.57 inches on October 8, 2023. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 3.18 inches (through October 9, 2023).
About 92 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
57% of homes in Clinton County predate 1980, below the New York county median of 66.8%, which ranks 52nd of New York's 57 counties.
18% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of New York. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps and storms.
25% 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.
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.
Beyond water
About 11 nights a year in Clinton County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (30th of 57 counties). June 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Clinton County homes break down as 12% utility gas, 35% electric, 8% propane and 6% 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 Clinton County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Every neighboring county gets more pipe-freeze nights than Clinton. All of its neighbors see more heavy-rain days. Franklin County has the oldest housing nearby, with 63% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Clinton | New York median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 37% | 45% | 49 of 57 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 57% | 67% | 52 of 57 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 18% | 13% | 6 of 57 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 12% | 7.6% | 8 of 57 |
| Vacant homes | 11% | 14% | 33 of 57 |
| Wood or propane heat | 14% | 19% | 38 of 57 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 80/yr | 55/yr | 6 of 57 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 4.5/yr | 6/yr | 42 of 57 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 92/yr | 101/yr | 39 of 57 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 11/yr | 12/yr | 30 of 57 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest New York county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Clinton County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in June, August and October.
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