Starr County, Texas · Rio Grande City
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Starr County averages 0 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly midwinter, and 4% of its homes predate 1960.
May brings the most downpours to Starr County, part of 6 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Starr County gets about 6 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Starr County, 4.52 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
2% of occupied homes in Starr County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Texas county median of 6.5%.
With 211 muggy nights a year, mold in Starr County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
About 66,067 people live in Starr County, 1,223 square miles in southern Texas, in roughly 23,139 homes. The county seat is Rio Grande City, and Roma, Escobares and Las Lomas round out the largest towns. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1994.
26/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Starr County ranks 230 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Starr County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for Texas, and pipes still freeze. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 0 nights a year at or below 20°F (205th of 232) and 3 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
Hard freezes are uncommon here, about 3 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 20°F on February 16, 2021.
Rainfall is about average for Texas. The county gets about 22.6 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 6 days of an inch or more (149th of 232). Those downpours cluster in May, June and September, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 4.52 inches on May 24, 2022. The worst three-day stretch dropped 6.35 inches, ending June 22, 2018, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Housing
Roughly 20% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Starr among the newer housing stocks of Texas's 232 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 38% of today's homes. In houses that new, the weak points are washing machine hoses, ice maker lines, water heaters and sump pumps rather than the pipes in the walls.
42% 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.
10% 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.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 211 times a year here, above the Texas county median of 129. Mold grows when indoor humidity stays above about 60%, the EPA's ceiling. A basement dehumidifier set to 50% and drying anything wet within 24 to 48 hours prevents most problems.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Starr County's occupied homes: 3% utility gas, 92% electric, 2% 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 Starr County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Starr 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 | Starr | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 4.4% | 20% | 223 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 20% | 46% | 219 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 38% | 26% | 41 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 9.9% | 13% | 161 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 17% | 17% | 107 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 2.4% | 6.5% | 198 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 0/yr | 3/yr | 205 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6/yr | 7.8/yr | 149 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 3/yr | 27/yr | 218 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 211/yr | 129/yr | 6 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 Starr 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