Kiowa County, Oklahoma · Hobart
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Hobart, Snyder and Mountain View. 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.
Kiowa County averages 12 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly December to February, and 48% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in May. Kiowa County averages 7.9 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Kiowa County gets about 7.9 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 62 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
8% of occupied homes in Kiowa County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Oklahoma county median of 12.5%.
About 102 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
With 4,665 homes and around 8,383 residents, Kiowa County is 1,015 square miles of southern Oklahoma. Besides Hobart, the county seat, the biggest communities are Snyder, Mountain View and Lone Wolf. The county's median home was built in 1962.
58/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Kiowa County ranks 12 of 77 Oklahoma counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Kiowa County ranks highest compared with other Oklahoma counties.
For frozen pipes, Kiowa County is a typical Oklahoma county, which is still plenty. It averaged 67 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 12 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 77 Oklahoma counties that's 41st.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 11 days below freezing (ending February 2021), and the low bottomed out near -8°F on February 17, 2021.
The freeze season here runs December to February, 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 8 and the last spring freeze around Mar 30.
Kiowa gets fewer downpours than most Oklahoma counties, but they still fill basements. About 7.9 days a year bring an inch or more (58th of 77), most often in May, out of 30.8 inches of total precipitation. On October 8, 2018, 3.66 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 7.05 inches (through October 9, 2018).
About 62 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
Oklahoma's 77 counties range widely in housing age; Kiowa ranks 6th, with 77% of its homes built before 1980.
In Kiowa County 48% 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.
With 26% 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
Kiowa County averages 102 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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, Kiowa County homes break down as 59% utility gas, 30% electric, 6% propane and 3% 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 Kiowa County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Beckham, Caddo and Washita get more pipe-freeze nights than Kiowa. Tillman County has the oldest housing nearby, with 83% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Kiowa | Oklahoma median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 48% | 24% | 3 of 77 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 77% | 55% | 6 of 77 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 10% | 22% | 70 of 77 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 5% | 12% | 70 of 77 |
| Vacant homes | 26% | 17% | 10 of 77 |
| Wood or propane heat | 8.4% | 13% | 56 of 77 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 12/yr | 13/yr | 41 of 77 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 7.9/yr | 11/yr | 58 of 77 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 62/yr | 65/yr | 42 of 77 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 102/yr | 98/yr | 27 of 77 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Oklahoma county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Kiowa County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in May, June 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