Meta, MO
Meta, MO's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Meta at the 67th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 192 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Meta's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 69th percentile nationally.
Where Meta's buildings actually sit
Most of Meta's buildings (63.5%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
Meta against the rest of the country
Meta's risk sits at a similar level relative to Missouri (74th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (67th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Meta ranks 10,465 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,168 by building count (1 is largest). Within Missouri alone, it ranks 276 of 1,062 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Missouri on its state page.
Meta and the insurance market
Meta's 67th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 63.5% of Meta's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 192 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Meta. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Meta, see the exposure-zones guide.