Colton, SD
Colton, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Colton at the 23rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 471 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Colton's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 21st percentile nationally.
Colton's building exposure, zone by zone
Colton rates 66.9% Minimal exposure against just 33.1% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 471 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Colton ranks
Inside South Dakota, Colton sits at just the 2nd percentile even though it scores 23rd 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, Colton ranks 24,190 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,862 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 430 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Colton's moderate wildfire rating (23rd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Colton's 66.9% 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.
Where Colton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Colton's 24,190-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Colton's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.