Catherine, CO
Catherine wildfire risk explained
Catherine sits at the 81st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 166 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Catherine at the 77th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Catherine's buildings actually sit
Of Catherine's 166 counted buildings, 65.1% 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 Catherine ranks
Inside Colorado, Catherine sits at just the 55th percentile even though it scores 81st nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Catherine ranks 6,013 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,167 by building count (1 is largest). Within Colorado alone, it ranks 212 of 472 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Colorado on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Catherine
Catherine's 81st-percentile, very 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.
Hardening a home in Catherine
With 65.1% of Catherine in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Catherine's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 166 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Catherine. The exposure-zones guide covers what Catherine's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.