Arnold, MO
How exposed is Arnold to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Arnold lands at the 43rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 8,873 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Arnold's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 44th percentile nationally.
Where Arnold's buildings actually sit
Arnold rates 75.6% Minimal exposure against just 12.5% Direct and 11.9% Indirect — of 8,873 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 8,873 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Arnold against the rest of the country
Arnold's 43rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 19th ranking inside Missouri does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 24 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Arnold ranks 17,993 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,874 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 864 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Arnold and the insurance market
Arnold's elevated wildfire rating (43rd 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
Even with 75.6% of Arnold outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 8,873 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Arnold. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Arnold, see the exposure-zones guide.