Cool Valley, MO
How exposed is Cool Valley to wildfire?
USFS scores Cool Valley at the 42nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 559 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Cool Valley's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 46th percentile nationally.
Where Cool Valley's buildings actually sit
Most of Cool Valley's buildings (98.6% of 559) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How Cool Valley compares
Cool Valley's 42nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 17th ranking inside Missouri does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 25 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cool Valley ranks 18,273 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,423 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 881 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Cool Valley and the insurance market
Cool Valley's elevated rating (42nd 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 98.6% of Cool Valley 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
Cool Valley's 42nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Cool Valley, see the exposure-zones guide.