Artesian, SD
Artesian, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Artesian sits at the 65th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 157 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Artesian at the 64th percentile, close to its 65th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
63.7% of Artesian's 157 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 36.3% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Artesian against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Artesian's 65th national percentile and its 57th 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, Artesian ranks 11,137 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,585 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 192 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Artesian
Artesian'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
Because 63.7% of Artesian's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Artesian's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 157 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Artesian. The exposure-zones guide covers what Artesian's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.