Nelson, NV
Nelson wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Nelson at the 85th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 69 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Nelson at the 83rd national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Nelson's buildings actually sit
100% of Nelson's 69 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 69 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Nelson against the rest of the country
Nelson ranks lower within Nevada (39th percentile statewide) than its 85th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Nelson ranks 4,605 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 30,317 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nevada alone, it ranks 76 of 123 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nevada on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Nelson's 85th-percentile, very 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Nelson's 100% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Nelson's 4,605-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Nelson, see the exposure-zones guide.