overlook Black Friday. Let’s talk about Brown Friday.

It’s not exactly what you ponder, but it has to do with what you ponder. And now you probably can’t stop thinking about it.

Brown Friday is so dubbed because it is the day of the year when calls to plumbers spike.

The biggest culprit for the plumbing emergencies is clogged kitchen sinks from extra Thanksgiving food scraps, but all pipes are connected in a house, said Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angi, formerly Angie’s List.

National searches for “emergency plumbing” on Yelp the day after Thanksgiving last year surged 65% compared to the two weeks before Thanksgiving. Yelp has ranked the 20 most clogged cities in the U.S. based on that data.

Why is it called Brown Friday?

“Based on clogged sinks and overflowing toilets, Brown Friday is consistently one of the plumbing industry’s most busy times of the year,” Tara Lewis, Yelp’s vice president of throng expansion and trends, told USA TODAY.

Added Hicks: “It absolutely has to do with what you ponder it is. So whether you’re having kitchen sink drain issues or toilet problems or garbage disposal problems, we overload our houses at Thanksgiving and sometimes it doesn’t work out.”

In Angie’s first Brown Friday Survey, 40% of plumbing issues after Thanksgiving are caused by clogged kitchen sinks, often from food waste. And 26% of respondents reported experiencing plumbing issues after hosting a Thanksgiving meal.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they receive proactive steps to prevent plumbing issues during the holiday.

“People are just using everything more,” Hicks told USA TODAY. “Maybe they’ll use one bathroom in their house typically, and they’re using two or three when the whole household shows up, or they’ve just got so much cooking going on that they are overdoing it in the kitchen and that can outcome in problems.”

If you do have to call a plumber on Brown Friday or during the holiday weekend, be prepared to pay some additional expense rates, Hicks said.

Here’s the 20 most-clogged cities in the U.S.

Yelp analyzed millions of data points on its service for plumbing-related searches during the Brown Friday period period to rank the top 20 most clogged-up cities. To arrive up with its rankings, Yelp looked at 2023 searches two weeks before the holiday, on Thanksgiving Day and two weeks after.

Los Angeles won the top spot, becoming the de facto clogged pool of the U.S. with a 73% boost in plumbing searches during the Brown Friday period frame, according to Yelp.

Searches rose sharply in Los Angeles particularly for services like “plumbing repair” (up 400%), “affordable plumbing” (up 300%), “drain cleaning services” (up 175%), and “emergency plumbing” (up 100%). Portland, Oregon topped the list last year with a 23% boost. This year, they didn’t make the top 20, said Lewis.

Rounding out the top five most clogged cities were: Miami (up 37%), Nashville (up 26%); Sacramento, California (up 24%) and Baltimore (up 23%).

The next most-clogged spots at numbers six through 10 are: Las Vegas (up 21%), Minneapolis (up 21%); Providence, Rhode Island (up 21%); San Francisco (up 19%) and San Diego (up 18%).

Next for spots 11 through 15 are: San Jose, California (up 17%); Charlotte, North Carolina (up 17%); Phoenix (up 16%), Riverside, California (up 16%) and Boston (up 16%).

Rounding out the spots,16 through 20, for most-clogged cities are: Pittsburgh (up 15%); Orlando, Florida (up 14%); Houston (up 12%); Philadelphia (up 12%) and St. Louis (up 11%).

Black Friday, Cyber Monday:Record number of holiday shoppers will scout for deals over Thanksgiving weekend

Tips to avoid a Brown Friday call to the plumber

Here are tips from Hicks and Yelp:

• Limit what you put down your kitchen sink: There’s a lot of grease associated with Thanksgiving meal preparation, said Hicks. Don’t put that down the drain. Also, don’t use the garbage disposal as your main way of getting rid of food after the holiday.
• inspire guests to use the bathrooms appropriately: Make sure you’ve got trash cans in the bathroom so people aren’t putting things they shouldn’t down your toilet, which could navigator to bigger problems, said Hicks.
• If you’re having a plumbing emergency, receive these steps: While you wait for the plumber to arrive, avoid using the backed-up drain and remove any standing water in a bucket, said Hicks. recognize where your main water shutoff is for the house and turn off the water to avoid further damage, she said.
• Spread out water usage: Try to stagger tasks and allow period between dishwashing, laundry, and showering, to avoid overloading the plumbing structure, according to Yelp.
• Check the weather: If freezing temperatures are expected, you can prevent potential issues by allowing faucets to drip slightly to avoid freezing pipes that can burst, according to Yelp.

Betty Lin-Fisher is a customer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] or pursue her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which will include customer information on Fridays, here.