Morton, MN
How exposed is Morton to wildfire?
Morton sits at the 41st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 349 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Morton at the 39th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
71.4% of Morton's 349 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 28.7% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Morton compares
Compare Morton's two percentiles: 57th within Minnesota, only 41st nationally — a gap of 16 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Morton ranks 18,497 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 20,339 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 392 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Morton
Morton's elevated wildfire rating (41st percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 71.4% of Morton'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
Morton's 41st-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 Morton, see the exposure-zones guide.