Cowlic, AZ
Cowlic, AZ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Cowlic sits at the 80th 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 62 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Cowlic at the 78th percentile, close to its 80th-percentile risk score.
Cowlic's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Cowlic: 100% of its 62 buildings, versus 0% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Cowlic against the rest of the country
Inside Arizona, Cowlic sits at just the 44th percentile even though it scores 80th 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, Cowlic ranks 6,229 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,564 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arizona alone, it ranks 247 of 441 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arizona on its state page.
Cowlic and the insurance market
Cowlic's 80th-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because Direct exposure dominates in Cowlic (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Cowlic's 80th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Cowlic, see the exposure-zones guide.