Muscle Shoals, AL
Muscle Shoals wildfire risk explained
Muscle Shoals's 8,652 buildings earn a 29th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Muscle Shoals's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 31st percentile nationally.
Where Muscle Shoals's buildings actually sit
Most of Muscle Shoals's buildings (43.4% of 8,652) 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. At 8,652 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Muscle Shoals compares
Muscle Shoals ranks lower within Alabama (2nd percentile statewide) than its 29th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Muscle Shoals ranks 22,459 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,921 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 580 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Muscle Shoals's moderate rating (29th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Muscle Shoals's 43.4% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Muscle Shoals's 29th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Muscle Shoals, see the exposure-zones guide.