Home Repair Rusty dripping in the kitchen

There's a damp area about 5'x 2' on my kitchen ceiling that appeared since it started raining. Although the wet area looks normal, there are about a dozen drip-sized circles where droplets are forming and beginning to drip, very occasionally. Those circles are a dark orange color and the drop that hits the floor is orange. Does this mean something in the ceiling has been wet so long it has rusted? The ceiling isn't bulging or buckling (yet?) - how urgently do I need to get a repairman in here? Thx!

 

could be the screws/nails... what's above the kitchen?

 

If your stain is directly below your bathroom, I'd suspect a leak upstairs. Each one of my bath fixtures has leaked and we discovered with the ceiling stain.

 

The rust spots are almost certainly drywall nails or screws. 10 sq ft of wet area is pretty big - I'd be trying to find the source pretty fast.

The fact that the water showed up during a big rain storm makes me think it could be a problem with the roof or siding, but a pipe from an upstairs bathroom could have just started leaking too. You just have to start searching above the wet spot.

A few years ago, I had a small wet spot on my basement ceiling below the kitchen sink, but everything was dry under the sink. It turned out to be a leak in the siding near my deck. The water ran about 5 feet in towards the middle house before making it down to the drywall. Sometimes finding the water source is an adventure.