Cottonwood, MN
Cottonwood, MN's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Cottonwood at the 4th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 642 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Cottonwood's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 3rd percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS classifies 83.6% of Cottonwood's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 16.4% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Cottonwood against the rest of the country
Cottonwood's risk sits at a similar level relative to Minnesota (6th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (4th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cottonwood ranks 30,203 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,295 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 856 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Cottonwood and the insurance market
At the 4th national percentile, Cottonwood rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 83.6% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Cottonwood gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Cottonwood's 30,203-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Cottonwood, see the exposure-zones guide.