Clear Lake (Deuel), SD
Clear Lake (Deuel) wildfire risk explained
Clear Lake (Deuel)'s 849 buildings earn a 72nd-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.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Clear Lake (Deuel) at the 66th national percentile — 6 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Only 36.3% of Clear Lake (Deuel)'s 849 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 63.7% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Clear Lake (Deuel) ranks
Clear Lake (Deuel)'s risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (69th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (72nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Clear Lake (Deuel) ranks 8,863 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,171 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 137 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Clear Lake (Deuel) and the insurance market
Clear Lake (Deuel)'s 72nd-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
Even with 63.7% of Clear Lake (Deuel) outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 849 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Clear Lake (Deuel). For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Clear Lake (Deuel), see the exposure-zones guide.