Merkel, TX
Merkel, TX's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Merkel's 1,741 buildings earn a 68th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Merkel at the 64th national percentile — 4 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Merkel's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 22.5% of Merkel's 1,741 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0.6% carry Indirect; the remaining 76.9% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Merkel compares
Merkel's 68th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 26th ranking inside Texas does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 42 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Merkel ranks 10,160 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,264 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 1,330 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Merkel
At the 68th percentile nationally, Merkel carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Merkel's 76.9% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Merkel's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Merkel's 10,160-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Merkel's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.