Nortonville, KY
Nortonville, KY's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Nortonville sits at the 42nd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 763 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 Nortonville at the 44th percentile, close to its 42nd-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
68.4% of Nortonville's 763 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 522 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 31.6% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
How Nortonville compares
Nortonville's 70th-percentile standing inside Kentucky outpaces its 42nd 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, Nortonville ranks 18,304 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,984 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 165 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Nortonville and the insurance market
Nortonville's elevated rating (42nd 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
Nortonville's 68.4% 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
Nortonville's 42nd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Nortonville, see the exposure-zones guide.