{"id":800,"date":"2026-11-09T17:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T23:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pagesofwisdom.com\/?p=800"},"modified":"2026-11-09T17:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T23:44:16","slug":"first-freeze-keep-pipes-from-bursting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pagesofwisdom.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/first-freeze-keep-pipes-from-bursting\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Big Freeze Is Coming This Week. Here’s How to Keep Your Pipes From Bursting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Enjoy the nice weather while it lasts, because the forecast just turned on us. A deep dip in the jet stream is headed for the eastern half of the country later this week, and according to weather.com<\/a>, daytime highs will drop about 20 degrees from Wednesday to Friday all the way from Chicago to Atlanta. By the weekend, overnight lows are expected in the 30s as far south as the Florida Panhandle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, a possible nor’easter could bring soaking rain, gusty wind, and the first snowflakes of the season to parts of the Great Lakes, the Appalachians, upstate New York, and northern New England between Thursday, November 12, and Saturday, November 14, USA TODAY reports<\/a>. Weather.com says the cold air will bring the first frost and freezes of the season for millions of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big storm is getting the headlines. The quieter story is what that first freeze can do to the water pipes in your house, and how cheap it is to stop it. This is the perfect week for a 30-minute walk-around, so here’s the plain-English plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is what a burst pipe looks like when the cold wins. Photo: Graham Horn, via Wikimedia Commons (geograph.org.uk). CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why a little ice can cost a lot of money<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Water is weird. Almost everything shrinks when it gets cold, but water expands when it turns to ice. The American Red Cross<\/a> explains that this expansion puts tremendous pressure on whatever is holding the water, and no matter how strong a pipe is, freezing water can break it. Think of a soda can left in the freezer, except the can is behind your drywall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the sneaky part: the damage usually shows up after the cold. The ice acts like a plug while it’s frozen. When it thaws, water pours out of the crack. State Farm says a small crack in a pipe can release more than 250 gallons of water a day<\/a>, which is enough to ruin floors, drywall, and everything stored in the basement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it’s not a small bill. State Farm’s latest numbers, reported by Carrier Management<\/a>, show more than 20,000 frozen pipe and winter water damage claims from January 2024 through June 2025, totaling over $628 million in paid losses. The average claim payment was more than $30,000. The five states with the highest totals were Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Tennessee, so this isn’t just a problem for people who live near Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frost, freeze, or hard freeze? What the alerts mean<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may see a few different cold-weather alerts on your phone this week. Here’s what the National Weather Service<\/a> means by each one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n