National Harbor, MD
National Harbor wildfire risk explained
National Harbor sits at the 33rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,187 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, National Harbor's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 32nd percentile nationally.
National Harbor's building exposure, zone by zone
National Harbor rates 85% Minimal exposure against just 15% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 1,187 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
National Harbor against the rest of the country
National Harbor's 51st-percentile standing inside Maryland outpaces its 33rd national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, National Harbor ranks 20,984 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,725 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 257 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
National Harbor and the insurance market
National Harbor's moderate rating (33rd 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
National Harbor's 85% 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.
Where National Harbor's figures come from
National Harbor's 33rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what National Harbor's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.