Colby, KS
Colby, KS's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Colby at the 28th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 3,039 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Colby at the 25th percentile, close to its 28th-percentile risk score.
Colby's building exposure, zone by zone
88.9% of Colby's 3,039 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 11.1% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Colby against the rest of the country
Colby's 28th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 8th ranking inside Kansas does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 21 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Colby ranks 22,529 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,374 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kansas alone, it ranks 663 of 721 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kansas on its state page.
Colby and the insurance market
Colby's moderate rating (28th 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
Colby's 88.9% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,039 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Colby. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Colby, see the exposure-zones guide.