Dawson, TX
Dawson, TX's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Dawson at the 83rd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 616 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 Dawson at the 83rd percentile, close to its 83rd-percentile risk score.
Where Dawson's buildings actually sit
54.6% of Dawson's 616 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 336 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 45.5% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Dawson compares
Dawson's risk sits at a similar level relative to Texas (69th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (83rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Dawson ranks 5,402 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,622 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 562 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Dawson's 83rd-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
With 54.6% of Dawson in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Dawson's 83rd-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 Dawson, see the exposure-zones guide.