Montrose, SD
Montrose wildfire risk explained
Montrose's 296 buildings earn a 51st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Montrose's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 50th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Montrose's buildings (53.7% of 296) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
How Montrose compares
Inside South Dakota, Montrose sits at just the 31st percentile even though it scores 51st 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, Montrose ranks 15,582 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,742 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 302 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 51st national percentile, Montrose rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 53.7% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Montrose gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Montrose's 15,582-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Montrose, see the exposure-zones guide.