When do water mains break?
Asked August 25, 2026 Figures as of October 12, 2026
In the cold, and on a few streets over and over. 36% of the city's dated breaks fall in December, January, and February — January alone holds 15%, October 5%. The winter is mostly one kind of break: “Split” is 63% of the winter's breaks, and 47% of the 614 dated breaks the city records as “Split” fall in those three months , against 22% of the 474 it records as “Corrosion”, which come all year. Minnesota Ave has broken 92 times at 66 places since 1998, 41st St is next at 32, and 13% of all located breaks are at a spot the record already held.
January holds 15% of the record's dated breaks; October 5%.
By the city's break type
Each type as the city recorded it, with the share of its dated breaks that fall in December, January, and February. A type that breaks evenly through the year would sit near 25%.
| Type | Breaks | In winter |
|---|---|---|
| Split | 618 | 47% |
| Corrosion | 482 | 22% |
| Other | 90 | 39% |
| Valve | 44 | 44% |
| Unknown | 29 | 29% |
| Corporation Stop | 21 | 19% |
| Contractor Hit | 11 | 9% |
| Not recorded | 1 | 100% |
The streets that break most
Breaks per street name, 1998–2026, house numbers and N/S/E/W folded away; an intersection counts once for each of its streets. "Places" is how many distinct locations along the street have broken.
| Street | Breaks | Places |
|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Ave | 92 | 66 |
| 41st St | 32 | 24 |
| Phillips Ave | 31 | 28 |
| 10th St | 26 | 22 |
| 6th St | 25 | 22 |
| 12th St | 24 | 20 |
| Western Ave | 23 | 20 |
| Cliff Ave | 19 | 14 |
| 1st Ave | 16 | 13 |
| 9th St | 16 | 13 |
| 3rd St | 15 | 11 |
| Russell St | 15 | 12 |
Method
Counted: every Break in the city's record, 1,296 of them, 1998–2026. Months, the winter share, and each type's winter share use the 1,278 breaks that carry a date; the 18 undated rows are in the type and street counts only. "Winter" is December through February by the break's date. Types are the city's `Type` verbatim, with a blank type shown as "Not recorded" (1 row).
Streets come from the city's location text: the house number and a leading N/S/E/W are dropped and long suffixes shortened, so that one street is one row. Locations are never shown — a break on a residential street is a pipe, not a house. A repeat is a break whose exact location text the record already holds from an earlier date. 4 rows carry no location and are left out of the street and repeat counts, which cover the other 1,292.
The record disagrees with itself on 34 rows, where the city's own `BREAKYEAR` names a different year than its `Date`; this Finding, like the Section, files each break under its date. The city's water-loss estimate is on only part of the record and is not summed here.
Sources
- Water Main Breaks as of October 12, 2026