Geyser, MT
Geyser wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Geyser at the 48th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 145 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Geyser's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 47th percentile nationally.
Geyser's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Geyser's buildings (61.4%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Geyser against the rest of the country
Inside Montana, Geyser sits at just the 12th percentile even though it scores 48th 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, Geyser ranks 16,265 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 27,085 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 418 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Geyser and the insurance market
Geyser's elevated rating (48th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Geyser (61.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Geyser's 16,265-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Geyser, see the exposure-zones guide.