Aberdeen, MS
Aberdeen wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Aberdeen at the 56th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 2,757 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Aberdeen at the 58th percentile, close to its 56th-percentile risk score.
Aberdeen's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Aberdeen's buildings (58.2%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Aberdeen compares
Aberdeen's 56th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 25th ranking inside Mississippi does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 31 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Aberdeen ranks 14,029 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,836 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 316 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Aberdeen's elevated wildfire rating (56th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Aberdeen's 58.2% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Aberdeen's figures come from
Aberdeen's 56th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Aberdeen's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.