Morningside, SD
How exposed is Morningside to wildfire?
Morningside sits at the 66th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 156 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Morningside at the 64th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Morningside's buildings actually sit
156 buildings are counted in Morningside, and 64.1% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 35.9% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Where Morningside ranks
Morningside scores 66th nationally and 59th within South Dakota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Morningside ranks 10,696 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,637 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 180 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Morningside
Morningside's high rating (66th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 64.1% of Morningside'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
Every one of the two percentiles behind Morningside's 10,696-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Morningside, see the exposure-zones guide.