Harlan, IA
Harlan wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Harlan at the 41st national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,810 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Harlan's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 41st percentile nationally.
Harlan's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Harlan's buildings (88.5% of 2,810) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Harlan ranks
Compare Harlan's two percentiles: 56th within Iowa, only 41st nationally — a gap of 15 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Harlan ranks 18,617 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,742 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 445 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Harlan and the insurance market
Harlan's elevated wildfire rating (41st percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Harlan
With 88.5% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Harlan gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Harlan's 18,617-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Harlan, see the exposure-zones guide.