Mason City, NE
Mason City, NE's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Mason City's 180 buildings earn a 88th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Mason City at the 84th percentile, close to its 88th-percentile risk score.
Where Mason City's buildings actually sit
61.7% of Mason City's 180 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 38.3% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Mason City against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Mason City's 88th national percentile and its 97th percentile inside Nebraska, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mason City ranks 3,655 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,634 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 21 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Mason City and the insurance market
Mason City's very high rating (88th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Mason City (61.7% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Mason City's figures come from
Mason City's 88th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Mason City's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.