Artas, SD
How exposed is Artas to wildfire?
Artas's 35 buildings earn a 65th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Artas at the 56th percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
Artas's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Artas's 35 counted buildings, 71.4% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Artas ranks
Artas's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (56th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (65th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Artas ranks 11,136 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,283 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 191 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Artas
Artas's 65th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Artas's 71.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Artas's figures come from
Artas's 65th-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 Artas's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.