Duval County, Texas · San Diego
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Pipes freeze in Duval County on about 0 nights a year, mostly midwinter. Older homes, 26% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in September. Duval County averages 6.3 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Duval County spike on heavy-rain days, about 6.3 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
1% of occupied homes in Duval 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 193 times a year in Duval County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 4,420 homes and around 9,742 residents, Duval County is 1,793 square miles of southern Texas. Besides San Diego, the county seat, the biggest communities are Freer, Benavides and Realitos. Half the homes here were built before 1980, half after.
46/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Duval County ranks 153 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Duval County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for Texas, and pipes still freeze. From 2015–2024 it averaged 0 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 4 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 205th of 232 counties.
Hard freezes are uncommon here, about 4 nights a year at or below 32°F, and that's exactly why they do damage: pipes in attics, exterior walls and slab-edge plumbing are rarely insulated. The coldest night in the record was about 17°F on February 16, 2021.
Rainfall is about average for Texas. About 6.3 days a year bring an inch or more (138th of 232), most often in September, out of 23.3 inches of total precipitation. On June 20, 2024, 4.3 inches fell in a single day. The worst three-day stretch dropped 4.97 inches, ending August 16, 2022, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Housing
Roughly 50% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Duval near the middle of Texas's 232 counties.
In Duval County 26% 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.
33% 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.
13% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, close to the Texas county median of 13.4%. Their water lines run under the floor behind the skirting, so a torn skirt or failed heat tape freezes them faster than lines in a site-built house.
The Census counted 31% of homes as vacant, above the Texas county median of 16.6%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
Duval County averages 193 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in September. 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 Duval County it's 6% utility gas, 88% electric, 1% 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 Duval County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Duval gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. Brooks County has the oldest housing nearby, with 60% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Duval | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 26% | 20% | 76 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 50% | 46% | 95 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 18% | 26% | 177 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 13% | 13% | 122 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 31% | 17% | 16 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 1.1% | 6.5% | 225 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 0/yr | 3/yr | 205 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6.3/yr | 7.8/yr | 138 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 4/yr | 27/yr | 212 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 193/yr | 129/yr | 16 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 Duval County: freezing from midwinter, 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