Schleicher County, Texas · Eldorado
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Schleicher County averages 4 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly January, and 32% of its homes predate 1960.
October brings the most downpours to Schleicher County, part of 4.3 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Schleicher County gets about 4.3 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Schleicher County, 2.94 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
13% of occupied homes in Schleicher County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Texas county median of 6.5%.
About 114 nights a year here stay at 65°F or warmer, so basements and crawl spaces can grow mold even without a leak.
Local risk profile
With 1,287 homes and around 2,381 residents, Schleicher County is 1,311 square miles of central Texas. Eldorado is the county seat. Half the homes here were built before 1976, half after.
54/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Schleicher County ranks 91 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Schleicher County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Schleicher County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Texas. It averaged 42 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 4 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 68th.
On February 15, 2021 the low fell to about 2°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 8 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs January. 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 Nov 12 and end around Mar 6.
Schleicher gets fewer downpours than most Texas counties, but they still fill basements. The county gets about 22.3 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 4.3 days of an inch or more (184th of 232). Those downpours cluster in May, September and October, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 2.94 inches on September 9, 2020. The worst three-day stretch dropped 5.29 inches, ending October 18, 2018, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 39 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 58% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Schleicher among the oldest housing stocks of Texas's 232 counties.
32% were built before 1960. Homes from that era often still have galvanized steel supply pipe, which rusts from the inside until it pinholes, and cast iron drains that crack with age. Slow leaks behind walls are a common start to water damage in these houses.
23% 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.
9% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, below 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 25% 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
Schleicher County averages 114 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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, Schleicher County homes break down as 28% utility gas, 57% electric, 13% propane and under 1% wood. Propane heat is above the Texas norm. Annual chimney and vent inspection, which the NFPA recommends, is one of the most effective fire-prevention habits for these homes.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Schleicher County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Schleicher gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Schleicher | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 32% | 20% | 45 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 58% | 46% | 60 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 19% | 26% | 164 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 9.2% | 13% | 166 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 25% | 17% | 48 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 13% | 6.5% | 54 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 4/yr | 3/yr | 68 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 4.3/yr | 7.8/yr | 184 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 39/yr | 27/yr | 64 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 114/yr | 129/yr | 160 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 Schleicher County: freezing from January, heavy rain in May, September 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