Bailey County, Texas · Muleshoe
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With 29% of homes built before 1960 and about 26 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 3.1 times a year here, most often in August. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Bailey County gets about 3.1 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Bailey County, 2.3 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
4% of occupied homes in Bailey County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Texas county median of 6.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 36 times a year in Bailey County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 2,740 homes and around 6,913 residents, Bailey County is 827 square miles of northwest Texas. Muleshoe is the county seat. Half the homes here were built before 1969, half after.
56/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Bailey County ranks 70 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Bailey County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Bailey County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Texas. It averaged 102 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 26 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 4th.
The longest cold spell was straight 7 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about -2°F on February 15, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
The freeze season here runs November 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.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 30 and end around Apr 11.
Bailey gets fewer downpours than most Texas counties, but they still fill basements. Of roughly 18.3 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 3.1 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 201st of 232. June, August and October see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 2.3 inches, May 24, 2022. The worst three-day stretch dropped 3.5 inches, ending October 3, 2019, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 97 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 71% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Bailey among the oldest housing stocks of Texas's 232 counties.
In Bailey County 29% 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.
19% 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
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 36 times a year here, below the Texas county median of 129. 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 expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Bailey County it's 63% utility gas, 33% 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 Bailey County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Bailey gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. Lamb County has the oldest housing nearby, with 76% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Bailey | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 29% | 20% | 55 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 71% | 46% | 23 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 11% | 26% | 204 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 3% | 13% | 222 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 19% | 17% | 85 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 3.9% | 6.5% | 169 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 26/yr | 3/yr | 4 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 3.1/yr | 7.8/yr | 201 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 97/yr | 27/yr | 8 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 36/yr | 129/yr | 229 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 Bailey County: freezing from November to February, heavy rain in June, August 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