Cottonwood, OK
Cottonwood wildfire risk explained
Cottonwood sits at the 95th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 148 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cottonwood at the 97th national percentile — 2 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Cottonwood's buildings actually sit
Of Cottonwood's 148 counted buildings, 91.9% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
How Cottonwood compares
Cottonwood's risk sits at a similar level relative to Oklahoma (81st percentile statewide) as it does nationally (95th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cottonwood ranks 1,489 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,965 by building count (1 is largest). Within Oklahoma alone, it ranks 159 of 834 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Oklahoma on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cottonwood
At the 95th percentile nationally, Cottonwood carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Cottonwood's 91.9% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Cottonwood's figures come from
Cottonwood's 95th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cottonwood's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.