States / Nevada

18 counties · median score 21

Crawl space moisture in Nevada

Most of Nevada drains well: only 0 of 18 counties score high or elevated, and the median is 21. Churchill County is the exception at 25; crawl-space moisture problems here usually come from grading, gutters and plumbing rather than the soil itself.

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  1. 1Wettest county Churchill County
  2. 2High or elevated 0 of 18
  3. 3Median score 21
  4. 4Driest county Nye County
Churchill25Storey24Washoe24Douglas22Elko22Humboldt21Lyon21Northwest Elko21Pershing21Lincoln20Lander19White Pine19Carson City18Mineral18Esmeralda17
Soil moisture score (0–100) for the 15 highest of 18 counties in Nevada, bars to scale. Score from USDA NRCS drainage class, hydrologic group, water-table depth and flooding; see methodology.
0High0Elevated10Moderate8Low
Nevada: counties by soil moisture tier, columns to scale.

Nevada's soil, taken as a whole

Across the 50,850,014 acres mapped in these 18 counties, 6% of soil with a drainage class is somewhat poorly, poorly or very poorly drained, and 8% of acres report a seasonal water table within about two metres. That is a dry figure; wet soils here are confined to river bottoms and wetlands. 18 of the 18 counties have mapped soils subject to occasional or frequent flooding.

Drainage classShare of mapped acres
Excessively drained2.2%
Somewhat excessively drained4.8%
Well drained86.4%
Moderately well drained0.9%
Somewhat poorly drained3.4%
Poorly drained1.2%
Very poorly drained1.1%

Radon. By EPA zone, 9 Nevada counties here are zone 1 (highest potential), 7 zone 2 and 1 zone 3; 1 are not in the EPA table. EPA says to test regardless of zone; a sealed crawl space is the cheapest moment to add radon venting if a test calls for it.

Every Nevada county

Sorted wettest first. High and elevated counties link to their own page with the full soil breakdown.

Churchill County 25Storey County 24Washoe County 24Douglas County 22Elko County 22Humboldt County 21Lyon County 21Northwest Elko County 21Pershing County 21Lincoln County 20Lander County 19White Pine County 19Carson City 18Mineral County 18Esmeralda County 17Eureka County 17Clark County 16Nye County 16

What drives the Nevada numbers

The wettest county, Churchill County, is 75% well drained by dominant condition, with a seasonal water table averaging 0.4 ft below grade across the 14% of acres that report one, and sits in EPA radon zone 2. The driest, Nye County, is 91% well drained. No Nevada county reaches the high tier.

The score is a guide to the soil, not to a house: a well-graded lot with working gutters in a high county can have a dry crawl space, and a bad downspout can flood one in a low county. The R408 calculator sizes venting or encapsulation for any footprint.

Sources: USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access (muaggatt: drclassdcd, hydgrpdcd, flodfreqdcd, pondfreqprs, wtdepannmin), acreage-weighted; EPA Map of Radon Zones, county table (June 2024 JSON). Checked 2026-10-23.