Wheeler County, Texas · Wheeler
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With 43% of homes built before 1960 and about 17 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
May brings the most downpours to Wheeler County, part of 5.5 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Wheeler County gets about 5.5 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Wheeler County, 2.67 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
8% of occupied homes in Wheeler County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Texas county median of 6.5%.
About 77 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
About 4,862 people live in Wheeler County, 915 square miles in northern Texas, in roughly 2,606 homes. Besides Wheeler, the county seat, the biggest communities are Shamrock, Allison and Mobeetie. Half the homes here were built before 1971, half after.
65/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Wheeler County ranks 16 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Wheeler County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Wheeler County gets more hard-freeze nights than most of Texas. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 17 nights a year at or below 20°F (22nd of 232) and 85 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
The longest cold spell was straight 11 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about -5°F on February 16, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
The freeze season here runs December 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 Nov 7 and end around Apr 1.
Wheeler gets fewer downpours than most Texas counties, but they still fill basements. The county gets about 24.1 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 5.5 days of an inch or more (160th of 232). Those downpours cluster in April, May and August, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 2.67 inches on April 27, 2015. The worst three-day stretch dropped 4.45 inches, ending April 28, 2015, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 79 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 69% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Wheeler among the oldest housing stocks of Texas's 232 counties.
Before 1960 is when 43% of these homes went up. Galvanized supply lines and cast iron drains were standard then, and after 60-plus years both corrode and crack, often out of sight inside a wall or under a slab.
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.
The Census counted 26% 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
Wheeler County averages 77 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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 Wheeler County it's 54% utility gas, 37% electric, 5% propane and 3% wood. Wood heat is more common here than in most Texas counties. Heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fires nationally, and the NFPA recommends having chimneys and vents inspected every year.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Wheeler County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Gray and Hemphill get more pipe-freeze nights than Wheeler. Collingsworth County has the oldest housing nearby, with 85% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Wheeler | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 43% | 20% | 18 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 69% | 46% | 32 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 15% | 26% | 193 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 10% | 13% | 160 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 26% | 17% | 37 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 7.7% | 6.5% | 99 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 17/yr | 3/yr | 22 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 5.5/yr | 7.8/yr | 160 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 79/yr | 27/yr | 23 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 77/yr | 129/yr | 203 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 Wheeler County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in April, May and August.
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