Buffalo County, Wisconsin · Alma
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Mondovi, Buffalo City and Fountain City. Start the steps below while you wait.
Answered 24/7 by a participating local provider. We're a referral service and don't do the work ourselves. How it works
Start here
Pick the closest match. These steps limit the damage and protect your insurance claim. Skip anything that isn't safe.
Buffalo County averages 73 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly November to April, and 43% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in May. Buffalo County averages 7.1 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Buffalo County gets about 7.1 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 89 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
59% of occupied homes in Buffalo County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Wisconsin county median of 32.9%.
About 19 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
Buffalo County covers 676 square miles of western Wisconsin, with about 13,393 residents and 6,522 homes. Alma is the county seat; Mondovi, Buffalo City and Fountain City are the next largest communities. The county's median home was built in 1969.
73/100 Water Damage Risk Index: High Buffalo County ranks 1 of 72 Wisconsin counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Buffalo County ranks highest compared with other Wisconsin counties.
For frozen pipes, Buffalo County is a typical Wisconsin county, which is still plenty. From 2015–2024 it averaged 73 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 150 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 36th of 72 counties.
On January 31, 2019 the low fell to about -35°F, and in the stretch ending January 2018 the county went 19 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 November to April. 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 Oct 19 and the last spring freeze around May 3.
Rainfall is about average for Wisconsin. Of roughly 37.2 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 7.1 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 25th of 72. May, June and August see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.48 inches, July 20, 2017. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 3.84 inches (through September 5, 2018).
About 89 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
Wisconsin's 72 counties range widely in housing age; Buffalo ranks 8th, with 65% of its homes built before 1980.
In Buffalo County 43% 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.
Beyond water
About 19 nights a year in Buffalo County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (13th of 72 counties). June 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 expectMain heating fuel in Buffalo County's occupied homes: 19% utility gas, 13% electric, 50% propane and 10% wood. Wood and propane heat are more common here than in most Wisconsin 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 Buffalo County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Pepin gets more pipe-freeze nights than Buffalo. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Buffalo | Wisconsin median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 43% | 31% | 4 of 72 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 65% | 54% | 8 of 72 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 17% | 21% | 60 of 72 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 5.5% | 4.8% | 31 of 72 |
| Vacant homes | 12% | 12% | 36 of 72 |
| Wood or propane heat | 59% | 33% | 6 of 72 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 73/yr | 73/yr | 36 of 72 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 7.1/yr | 6.3/yr | 25 of 72 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 89/yr | 94/yr | 65 of 72 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 19/yr | 11/yr | 13 of 72 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Wisconsin county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Buffalo County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in May, June 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