Madison, MS
Madison, MS's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Madison at the 55th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 11,365 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 Madison at the 57th percentile, close to its 55th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Indirect exposure is dominant in Madison (51.9% of 11,365 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 28.2% sit in the Direct zone. At 11,365 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Madison against the rest of the country
Inside Mississippi, Madison sits at just the 23rd percentile even though it scores 55th 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, Madison ranks 14,334 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,391 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 323 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Madison and the insurance market
Madison's elevated rating (55th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Madison
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Madison (51.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Madison's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Madison's 14,334-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Madison's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.