Lake Madison, SD
Lake Madison wildfire risk explained
Lake Madison's 1,127 buildings earn a 38th-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 Lake Madison at the 34th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Lake Madison's buildings (69.6% of 1,127) 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.
How Lake Madison compares
Lake Madison's 38th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 11th ranking inside South Dakota does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 26 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Madison ranks 19,682 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 11,105 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 389 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Lake Madison and the insurance market
Lake Madison's moderate rating (38th 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
Even with 69.6% of Lake Madison outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Lake Madison's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,127 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Lake Madison. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lake Madison's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.