Howard City, MI
Howard City, MI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Howard City's 891 buildings earn a 33rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Howard City at the 31st national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Howard City's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 68.4% of Howard City's 891 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 23.3% Direct and 8.3% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
How Howard City compares
Compare Howard City's two percentiles: 85th within Michigan, only 33rd nationally — a gap of 52 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Howard City ranks 21,110 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,801 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 115 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Howard City and the insurance market
At the 33rd national percentile, Howard City rates moderate for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Howard City's 68.4% 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.
Where Howard City's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Howard City's 21,110-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Howard City's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.