Balaton, MN
Balaton wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Balaton at the 23rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 447 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Balaton at the 18th percentile, close to its 23rd-percentile risk score.
Balaton's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Balaton's buildings (84.1% of 447) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Balaton against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Balaton's 23rd national percentile and its 26th percentile inside Minnesota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Balaton ranks 24,395 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,334 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 673 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Balaton
At the 23rd national percentile, Balaton rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Balaton's 84.1% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Balaton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Balaton's 24,395-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Balaton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.