Lake Junaluska, NC
How exposed is Lake Junaluska to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Lake Junaluska at the 75th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,176 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Lake Junaluska's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 78th percentile nationally.
Where Lake Junaluska's buildings actually sit
2,176 buildings are counted in Lake Junaluska, and 65.2% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 1.3% rated Minimal.
Lake Junaluska against the rest of the country
Lake Junaluska's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (76th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (75th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Junaluska ranks 8,008 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 7,001 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 183 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Lake Junaluska's 75th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With 65.2% of Lake Junaluska in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Lake Junaluska's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Lake Junaluska's 8,008-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lake Junaluska's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.