Clear Lake, IA
Clear Lake wildfire risk explained
Clear Lake sits at the 13th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 4,475 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Clear Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 11th percentile nationally.
Where Clear Lake's buildings actually sit
Clear Lake rates 93.4% Minimal exposure against just 6.6% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 4,475 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Clear Lake compares
There's little gap between Clear Lake's 13th national percentile and its 23rd percentile inside Iowa, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Clear Lake ranks 27,451 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,812 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 785 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Clear Lake
Clear Lake's low rating (13th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 93.4% of Clear Lake 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 4,475 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Clear Lake. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Clear Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.