Medora, ND
How exposed is Medora to wildfire?
USFS scores Medora at the 88th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 202 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Medora's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 89th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
USFS puts 89.6% of Medora's 202 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 10.4% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Medora against the rest of the country
Medora's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Dakota (99th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (88th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Medora ranks 3,755 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,776 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Dakota alone, it ranks 7 of 402 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Dakota on its state page.
Medora and the insurance market
Medora'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.
Hardening a home in Medora
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Medora (89.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Medora's 88th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Medora, see the exposure-zones guide.