Grayson Valley, AL
How exposed is Grayson Valley to wildfire?
USFS scores Grayson Valley at the 67th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,738 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Grayson Valley's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 70th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 58% of Grayson Valley's 1,738 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 42% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Grayson Valley against the rest of the country
Inside Alabama, Grayson Valley sits at just the 39th percentile even though it scores 67th 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, Grayson Valley ranks 10,419 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,271 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 359 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Grayson Valley and the insurance market
Grayson Valley's high rating (67th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Grayson Valley's 58% 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
Grayson Valley's 67th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Grayson Valley, see the exposure-zones guide.