Carteret County, North Carolina · Beaufort
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Carteret County averages 1 night a year at 20°F or colder, mostly midwinter, and 11% of its homes predate 1960.
August brings the most downpours to Carteret County, part of 16.2 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Carteret County gets about 16.2 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Carteret County, 8.56 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
8% of occupied homes in Carteret County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the North Carolina county median of 11.7%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 126 times a year in Carteret County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Carteret County covers 508 square miles of southeast North Carolina, with about 69,148 residents and 52,181 homes. Beaufort is the county seat; Morehead City, Newport and Emerald Isle are the next largest communities. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1989.
45/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Carteret County ranks 65 of 100 North Carolina counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Carteret County ranks highest compared with other North Carolina counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for North Carolina, and pipes still freeze. From 2015–2024 it averaged 1 night a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 23 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 98th of 100 counties.
Hard freezes are uncommon here, about 23 nights a year at or below 32°F, and that's exactly why they do damage: pipes in attics, exterior walls and slab-edge plumbing are rarely insulated. The coldest night in the record was about 14°F on February 20, 2015.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of North Carolina. Of roughly 62.3 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 16.2 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 5th of 100. August, September and December see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 8.56 inches, September 14, 2018. The worst three-day stretch dropped 16.55 inches, ending September 16, 2018, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 22 days a year. Each cycle melts and refreezes water at roof edges and in foundation cracks, which is how ice dams and basement seepage get started.
Housing
Roughly 29% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Carteret among the newer housing stocks of North Carolina's 100 counties.
Since 2000 the county has added enough housing that 30% of homes are that new. Modern PEX and copper rarely fail on their own; the leaks come from connections, appliances and storms.
40% 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 17% 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.
39% 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
Carteret County averages 126 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in September. 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 Carteret County it's 4% utility gas, 87% electric, 8% propane and under 1% wood. Heating equipment, cooking and electrical failures cause most home fires nationally. Even a small kitchen fire can leave soot through the whole house, because smoke follows air currents into closets, ducts and attic space.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Carteret County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Craven, Jones and Onslow get more pipe-freeze nights than Carteret. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Hyde County has the oldest housing nearby, with 48% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Carteret | North Carolina median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 11% | 18% | 82 of 100 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 29% | 41% | 83 of 100 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 30% | 26% | 34 of 100 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 17% | 17% | 54 of 100 |
| Vacant homes | 39% | 13% | 3 of 100 |
| Wood or propane heat | 8.3% | 12% | 69 of 100 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 1/yr | 5/yr | 98 of 100 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 16/yr | 12/yr | 5 of 100 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 22/yr | 57/yr | 98 of 100 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 126/yr | 89/yr | 1 of 100 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest North Carolina county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Carteret County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in August, September and December.
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