Altamont, SD
How exposed is Altamont to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Altamont at the 72nd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 53 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Altamont at the 68th percentile, close to its 72nd-percentile risk score.
Where Altamont's buildings actually sit
75.5% of Altamont's 53 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 40 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 24.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Where Altamont ranks
There's little gap between Altamont's 72nd national percentile and its 69th percentile inside South Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Altamont ranks 8,834 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,855 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 135 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Altamont
Altamont's 72nd-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Altamont
With 75.5% of Altamont in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 53 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Altamont. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Altamont, see the exposure-zones guide.