Houston, MS
How exposed is Houston to wildfire?
USFS scores Houston at the 59th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 2,009 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 Houston at the 62nd percentile, close to its 59th-percentile risk score.
Houston's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 50.4% of Houston's 2,009 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 49% Direct and 0.6% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Houston against the rest of the country
Inside Mississippi, Houston sits at just the 33rd percentile even though it scores 59th 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, Houston ranks 12,888 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,452 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 285 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Houston and the insurance market
At the 59th national percentile, Houston rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Houston (50.4% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Houston's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,009 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Houston. The exposure-zones guide covers what Houston's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.