Hale Center, TX
Hale Center, TX's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Hale Center at the 87th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 1,184 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 Hale Center at the 86th percentile, close to its 87th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Hale Center (76.1% of 1,184 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 23.8% sit in the Direct zone.
How Hale Center compares
Hale Center scores 87th nationally and 79th within Texas — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hale Center ranks 4,016 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,745 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 385 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Hale Center
Hale Center's very high rating (87th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Hale Center (76.1% 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
Hale Center's 87th-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 Hale Center, see the exposure-zones guide.