Gravity, IA
Gravity wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Gravity at the 55th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 172 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Gravity at the 56th percentile, close to its 55th-percentile risk score.
Where Gravity's buildings actually sit
57.6% of Gravity's 172 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 42.4% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
How Gravity compares
Within Iowa, Gravity ranks higher (76th percentile) than it does nationally (55th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gravity ranks 14,081 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,933 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 249 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Gravity and the insurance market
Gravity's elevated rating (55th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 57.6% of Gravity outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Gravity's 55th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Gravity, see the exposure-zones guide.