Andrews County, Texas · Andrews
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Andrews and McKinney Acres. 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.
Pipes freeze in Andrews County on about 6 nights a year, mostly December to February. Older homes, 21% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in June. Andrews County averages 2.4 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Andrews County spike on heavy-rain days, about 2.4 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 52 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
4% of occupied homes in Andrews County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Texas county median of 6.5%.
With 94 muggy nights a year, mold in Andrews County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Andrews County covers 1,501 square miles of western Texas, with about 18,610 residents and 7,153 homes. Andrews is the county seat; McKinney Acres is the next largest community. Half the homes here were built before 1983, half after.
45/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Andrews County ranks 159 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Andrews County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Andrews County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Texas. It averaged 54 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 6 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 232 Texas counties that's 44th.
The longest cold spell was straight 8 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about 1°F on February 15, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
Most freezing nights fall from December to February, peaking in January. Disconnect garden hoses and shut off outdoor spigots before the first hard frost, and keep the heat at 55°F or higher if you'll be away.
Freezing nights typically start around Nov 14 and end around Mar 13.
Andrews gets fewer downpours than most Texas counties, but they still fill basements. The county gets about 12.9 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 2.4 days of an inch or more (214th of 232). Those downpours cluster in April, June and October, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 1.95 inches on October 22, 2015. The worst three-day stretch dropped 3.11 inches, ending June 29, 2021, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 52 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 45% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Andrews near the middle of Texas's 232 counties.
Older and newer homes sit side by side here: 21% predate 1960 and 30% are from 2000 or later. Corroded pipe is the typical failure in the first group, burst supply hoses in the second.
25% 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 22% 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.
Beyond water
About 94 nights a year in Andrews County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (195th of 232 counties). June is the wettest month. 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 expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Andrews County it's 30% utility gas, 64% electric, 4% propane and under 1% 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 Andrews County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Gaines gets more pipe-freeze nights than Andrews. Winkler County has the oldest housing nearby, with 74% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Andrews | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 21% | 20% | 105 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 45% | 46% | 121 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 30% | 26% | 89 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 22% | 13% | 41 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 4.3% | 17% | 229 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 4% | 6.5% | 161 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 6/yr | 3/yr | 44 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 2.4/yr | 7.8/yr | 214 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 52/yr | 27/yr | 39 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 94/yr | 129/yr | 195 of 232 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Texas county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Andrews County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in April, June and October.
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