Lafayette County, Wisconsin · Darlington
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With 46% of homes built before 1960 and about 62 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
July brings the most downpours to Lafayette County, part of 8.4 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Sewage backups in Lafayette County spike on heavy-rain days, about 8.4 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Lafayette County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.01 inches, and about 98 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
40% of occupied homes in Lafayette County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Wisconsin county median of 32.9%.
With 18 muggy nights a year, mold in Lafayette County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Lafayette County covers 634 square miles of southern Wisconsin, with about 16,942 residents and 7,234 homes. Besides Darlington, the county seat, the biggest communities are Shullsburg, Benton and Belmont. The county's median home was built in 1966.
68/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Lafayette County ranks 5 of 72 Wisconsin counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Lafayette County ranks highest compared with other Wisconsin counties.
Lafayette County is milder than most of Wisconsin, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. From 2015–2024 it averaged 62 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 146 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 58th of 72 counties.
On January 31, 2019 the low fell to about -32°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 17 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 March. 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 15 and the last spring freeze around May 3.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Wisconsin. Of roughly 39.6 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 8.4 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 9th of 72. June, July and September see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 3.01 inches, July 20, 2017. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 5.77 inches (through July 22, 2017).
About 98 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 67% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Lafayette among the oldest housing stocks of Wisconsin's 72 counties.
46% 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.
Beyond water
About 18 nights a year in Lafayette County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (14th of 72 counties). July is the wettest month. 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 Lafayette County it's 41% utility gas, 10% electric, 31% propane and 8% 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 Lafayette County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Iowa gets more pipe-freeze nights than Lafayette. Its housing is the oldest in the area by share of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Lafayette | Wisconsin median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 46% | 31% | 3 of 72 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 67% | 54% | 3 of 72 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 17% | 21% | 60 of 72 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 4.5% | 4.8% | 41 of 72 |
| Vacant homes | 6.5% | 12% | 52 of 72 |
| Wood or propane heat | 40% | 33% | 27 of 72 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 62/yr | 73/yr | 58 of 72 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 8.4/yr | 6.3/yr | 9 of 72 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 98/yr | 94/yr | 15 of 72 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 18/yr | 11/yr | 14 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 Lafayette County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in June, July 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