Clark County, Ohio · Springfield
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Springfield, Northridge and New Carlisle. Start the steps below while you wait.
Answered 24/7 by a participating local provider. We're a referral service and don't do the work ourselves. How it works
Start here
Pick the closest match. These steps limit the damage and protect your insurance claim. Skip anything that isn't safe.
With 45% of homes built before 1960 and about 32 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 7.5 times a year here, most often in March. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
45% of homes here predate 1960, when clay and cast iron sewer laterals were standard. Roots and cracks in those lines are a common cause of backups.
In Clark County, 2.89 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
5% of occupied homes in Clark County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Ohio county median of 15.9%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 41 times a year in Clark County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
About 135,158 people live in Clark County, 396 square miles in western Ohio, in roughly 61,126 homes. The county seat is Springfield, and Northridge, New Carlisle and Park Layne round out the largest towns. The county's median home was built in 1963.
76/100 Water Damage Risk Index: High Clark County ranks 1 of 88 Ohio counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Clark County ranks highest compared with other Ohio counties.
For frozen pipes, Clark County is a typical Ohio county, which is still plenty. It averaged 104 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 32 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 88 Ohio counties that's 35th.
The longest cold spell was straight 17 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in March 2015. The coldest night reached about -11°F on January 3, 2018. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
The freeze season here runs November to March, with January the coldest. If you travel then, leave the thermostat at 55°F or above and open sink cabinets on outside walls.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Nov 2 and the last spring freeze around Apr 20.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Ohio. The county gets about 44.4 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 7.5 days of an inch or more (9th of 88). Those downpours cluster in March, July and September, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 2.89 inches on May 19, 2020. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.11 inches (through September 9, 2018).
About 78 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
Roughly 77% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Clark among the oldest housing stocks of Ohio's 88 counties.
Before 1960 is when 45% of these homes went up. Galvanized supply lines and cast iron drains were standard then, and after 60-plus years both corrode and crack, often out of sight inside a wall or under a slab.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 41 times a year here, above the Ohio county median of 35. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally 30 to 50%. Basements can pass 60% on their own in summer, so a dehumidifier matters even without a leak, and anything wet should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Clark County's occupied homes: 71% utility gas, 19% electric, 4% 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 Clark County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Champaign gets more pipe-freeze nights than Clark. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Clark | Ohio median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 45% | 37% | 18 of 88 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 77% | 61% | 4 of 88 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 8.5% | 17% | 85 of 88 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 3.6% | 5.9% | 64 of 88 |
| Vacant homes | 8.4% | 8.4% | 43 of 88 |
| Wood or propane heat | 5.2% | 16% | 76 of 88 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 32/yr | 31/yr | 35 of 88 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 7.5/yr | 5.7/yr | 9 of 88 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 78/yr | 82/yr | 70 of 88 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 41/yr | 35/yr | 19 of 88 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Ohio county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Clark County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in March, July and September.
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