Nisland, SD
Nisland wildfire risk explained
Nisland sits at the 71st percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 210 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Nisland at the 70th percentile, close to its 71st-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
61.9% of Nisland's 210 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 38.1% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Nisland compares
There's little gap between Nisland's 71st national percentile and its 68th percentile inside South Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Nisland ranks 9,117 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,499 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 143 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Nisland
Nisland's 71st-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Nisland's 61.9% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Nisland's 71st-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 Nisland, see the exposure-zones guide.