Do reports of this repair follow the weather where owners live, county by county?

A moderate pattern, not a firm finding: across 279 U.S. counties with 10 or more NHTSA owner complaints about windshield replacement, reports run 23% above the national share in the third with the coldest winters against 5% below in the third with the mildest winters. This is an association across counties, not a cause.

Reports of windshield replacement by county, grouped by winter cold (heating degree days). Third of counties with the mildest winters: 5% below; Middle third: 15% above; Third with the coldest winters: 23% above.

• Split the 279 counties into thirds by winter cold (heating degree days): the third with the mildest winters reports windshield replacement 5% below what the national share predicts, the middle third 15% above, and the third with the coldest winters 23% above.
• Take out any single county and the pattern still holds; the one it leans on most is Missoula County, MT.
• Weak spot: compare only counties with similar summer heat (cooling degree days) and the pattern keeps about 8% of its strength, so part of it may come from that instead.
• Still open: complaint city names are matched to counties by place name, so a county with postal-neighbourhood names is undercounted, and county elevation is the height of one point, not the county average.

Weather and roads act on a car where it is driven, not on a state average, so the county map tests the same mechanism more closely.

Source: NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county climate files 1991-2020, joined to NHTSA owner complaints placed in counties by city name · file downloaded 2026-10-05