Appalachia, VA
Appalachia wildfire risk explained
Appalachia's 749 buildings earn a 91st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Appalachia at the 93rd national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
749 buildings are counted in Appalachia, and 65.7% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 34.3% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
How Appalachia compares
Appalachia's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (98th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (91st) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Appalachia ranks 2,883 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,136 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 12 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Appalachia and the insurance market
At the 91st percentile nationally, Appalachia carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Appalachia (65.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Appalachia's 2,883-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Appalachia, see the exposure-zones guide.