Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania · Pottsville
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Pipes freeze in Schuylkill County on about 37 nights a year, mostly November to March. Older homes, 61% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in April. Schuylkill County averages 10.9 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Schuylkill County spike on heavy-rain days, about 10.9 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 98 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
9% of occupied homes in Schuylkill County heat mainly with wood or propane, close to the Pennsylvania county median of 10%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 26 times a year in Schuylkill County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 67,295 homes and around 143,558 residents, Schuylkill County is 779 square miles of eastern Pennsylvania. Besides Pottsville, the county seat, the biggest communities are Tamaqua, Schuylkill Haven and Minersville. It has some of the oldest housing in the state: the median home went up in 1946.
78/100 Water Damage Risk Index: High Schuylkill County ranks 1 of 67 Pennsylvania counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Schuylkill County ranks highest compared with other Pennsylvania counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Schuylkill County sits near the middle of the state. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 37 nights a year at or below 20°F (34th of 67) and 122 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 15 days below freezing (ending January 2018), and the low bottomed out near -8°F on February 24, 2015.
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.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 27 and end around Apr 25.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Pennsylvania. The county gets about 50.3 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 10.9 days of an inch or more (5th of 67). Those downpours cluster in April, July and August, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 4.33 inches on September 2, 2021. The worst three-day stretch dropped 6.4 inches, ending July 25, 2018, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 98 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 79% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Schuylkill among the oldest housing stocks of Pennsylvania's 67 counties.
In Schuylkill County 61% 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.
14% 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
Schuylkill County averages 26 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, Schuylkill County homes break down as 6% utility gas, 26% electric, 7% propane and 2% 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 Schuylkill County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Carbon, Columbia and Luzerne get more pipe-freeze nights than Schuylkill. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Schuylkill | Pennsylvania median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 61% | 42% | 2 of 67 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 79% | 66% | 4 of 67 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 8.1% | 13% | 62 of 67 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 3.4% | 6.6% | 53 of 67 |
| Vacant homes | 14% | 12% | 26 of 67 |
| Wood or propane heat | 9.4% | 10% | 37 of 67 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 37/yr | 37/yr | 34 of 67 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 11/yr | 7/yr | 5 of 67 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 98/yr | 98/yr | 33 of 67 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 26/yr | 16/yr | 22 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 Schuylkill County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in April, July and August.
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