Mount Sidney, VA
How exposed is Mount Sidney to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Mount Sidney at the 62nd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 419 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Mount Sidney's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 65th percentile nationally.
Mount Sidney's building exposure, zone by zone
53.2% of Mount Sidney's 419 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 46.8% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Where Mount Sidney ranks
Mount Sidney's risk sits at a similar level relative to Virginia (70th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (62nd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Mount Sidney ranks 11,992 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,849 by building count (1 is largest). Within Virginia alone, it ranks 207 of 681 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Virginia on its state page.
Mount Sidney and the insurance market
Mount Sidney's 62nd-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.
Hardening a home in Mount Sidney
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Mount Sidney (53.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Mount Sidney's 62nd-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 Mount Sidney, see the exposure-zones guide.