Carbon County, Pennsylvania · Jim Thorpe
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With 41% of homes built before 1960 and about 46 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
September brings the most downpours to Carbon County, part of 12.2 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Sewage backups in Carbon County spike on heavy-rain days, about 12.2 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Carbon County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 4.64 inches, and about 108 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
10% of occupied homes in Carbon County heat mainly with wood or propane, close to the Pennsylvania county median of 10%.
With 12 muggy nights a year, mold in Carbon County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Carbon County covers 381 square miles of eastern Pennsylvania, with about 65,382 residents and 34,417 homes. Besides Jim Thorpe, the county seat, the biggest communities are Palmerton, Lehighton and Lansford. The county's median home was built in 1972.
65/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Carbon County ranks 5 of 67 Pennsylvania counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Carbon County ranks highest compared with other Pennsylvania counties.
Carbon is on the colder side of Pennsylvania for pipes. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 46 nights a year at or below 20°F (16th of 67) and 135 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
The longest cold spell was straight 15 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in January 2018. The coldest night reached about -12°F on February 24, 2015. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
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.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 22 and the last spring freeze around Apr 28.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Pennsylvania. Of roughly 52.3 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 12.2 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 2nd of 67. April, September and December see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 4.64 inches, September 2, 2021. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 5.16 inches (through September 2, 2021).
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 108 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
Roughly 60% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Carbon among the newer housing stocks of Pennsylvania's 67 counties.
Housing age is mixed: 41% of homes are pre-1960 and 14% are 2000 or newer. Ask any plumber which era your house is from and you'll know which failures to watch for.
26% 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.
21% 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
Carbon County averages 12 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in July. 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, Carbon County homes break down as 11% utility gas, 32% electric, 6% propane and 4% 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 Carbon County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Monroe gets more pipe-freeze nights than Carbon. Schuylkill County has the oldest housing nearby, with 79% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Carbon | Pennsylvania median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 41% | 42% | 36 of 67 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 60% | 66% | 49 of 67 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 14% | 13% | 31 of 67 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 4.2% | 6.6% | 48 of 67 |
| Vacant homes | 21% | 12% | 14 of 67 |
| Wood or propane heat | 10% | 10% | 34 of 67 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 46/yr | 37/yr | 16 of 67 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 12/yr | 7/yr | 2 of 67 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 108/yr | 98/yr | 8 of 67 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 12/yr | 16/yr | 43 of 67 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Pennsylvania county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Carbon County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in April, 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