Charlotte, IA
Charlotte wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Charlotte lands at the 40th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 278 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Charlotte at the 41st percentile, close to its 40th-percentile risk score.
Charlotte's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 8.6% of Charlotte's 278 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 91.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Charlotte ranks
Compare Charlotte's two percentiles: 55th within Iowa, only 40th nationally — a gap of 15 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Charlotte ranks 18,871 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,257 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 457 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Charlotte and the insurance market
Charlotte's elevated rating (40th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Charlotte's 91.4% 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 Charlotte's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Charlotte's 18,871-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Charlotte's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.