Lake Catherine, IL
How exposed is Lake Catherine to wildfire?
USFS scores Lake Catherine at the 43rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,127 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Lake Catherine's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 42nd percentile nationally.
Where Lake Catherine's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 68.4% of Lake Catherine's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 31.6% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
How Lake Catherine compares
Compare Lake Catherine's two percentiles: 95th within Illinois, only 43rd nationally — a gap of 52 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Catherine ranks 18,020 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,099 by building count (1 is largest). Within Illinois alone, it ranks 77 of 1,445 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Illinois on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Lake Catherine
Lake Catherine's elevated rating (43rd percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Lake Catherine's 68.4% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Lake Catherine's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Lake Catherine's 18,020-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lake Catherine's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.