Culbertson, MT
How exposed is Culbertson to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Culbertson at the 79th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 609 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Culbertson at the 79th percentile, close to its 79th-percentile risk score.
Where Culbertson's buildings actually sit
609 buildings are counted in Culbertson, and 90.6% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 9.4% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
How Culbertson compares
Culbertson's 79th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 51st ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 28 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Culbertson ranks 6,687 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,704 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 234 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Culbertson and the insurance market
Culbertson's high rating (79th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Culbertson
Culbertson's 90.6% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Culbertson's 6,687-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Culbertson, see the exposure-zones guide.