Westmoreland County, Virginia · Montross
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Pipes freeze in Westmoreland County on about 9 nights a year, mostly December to February. Older homes, 25% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in December. Westmoreland County averages 8.9 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Westmoreland County spike on heavy-rain days, about 8.9 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Westmoreland County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 4.75 inches, and about 69 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
7% of occupied homes in Westmoreland County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Virginia county median of 11.9%.
With 83 muggy nights a year, mold in Westmoreland County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
With 11,448 homes and around 18,826 residents, Westmoreland County is 229 square miles of eastern Virginia. Besides Montross, the county seat, the biggest community is Colonial Beach. The county's median home was built in 1984.
48/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Westmoreland County ranks 56 of 95 Virginia counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Westmoreland County ranks highest compared with other Virginia counties.
Westmoreland County is milder than most of Virginia, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. It averaged 73 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 9 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 95 Virginia counties that's 71st.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 7 days below freezing (ending January 2018), and the low bottomed out near 1°F on January 6, 2018.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs December to February. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Nov 13 and the last spring freeze around Mar 28.
Rainfall is about average for Virginia. About 8.9 days a year bring an inch or more (63rd of 95), most often in December, out of 45.5 inches of total precipitation. On October 12, 2018, 4.75 inches fell in a single day. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 5.37 inches (through July 24, 2018).
About 69 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 45% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Westmoreland near the middle of Virginia's 95 counties.
25% 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.
Here 8% of housing is manufactured homes. Check the skirting and the heat tape on the main water line every fall, because that one exposed line is what freezes.
The Census counted 29% of homes as vacant, above the Virginia county median of 15%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
About 83 nights a year in Westmoreland County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (20th of 95 counties). July is the wettest month. 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, Westmoreland County homes break down as 2% utility gas, 79% electric, 6% 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 Westmoreland County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Westmoreland gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. Richmond County has the oldest housing nearby, with 54% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Westmoreland | Virginia median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 25% | 20% | 27 of 95 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 45% | 46% | 51 of 95 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 34% | 25% | 22 of 95 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 7.6% | 9.6% | 62 of 95 |
| Vacant homes | 29% | 15% | 9 of 95 |
| Wood or propane heat | 7.2% | 12% | 77 of 95 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 9/yr | 14/yr | 71 of 95 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 8.9/yr | 10/yr | 63 of 95 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 69/yr | 77/yr | 72 of 95 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 83/yr | 64/yr | 20 of 95 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Virginia county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Westmoreland County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in June, October and December.
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