Novato, CA
Novato, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Novato lands at the 89th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 17,180 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Novato at the 90th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Novato's building exposure, zone by zone
80.6% of Novato's 17,180 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 16.2% Direct and 3.2% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 17,180 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Novato against the rest of the country
Inside California, Novato sits at just the 59th percentile even though it scores 89th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Novato ranks 3,459 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 840 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 646 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Novato sits in California, one of two states that legally require a wildfire-risk disclosure at sale. California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, ended 2025 with 668,609 residential policies after adding 21,859 in Q4 alone — the kind of market shift a 89th-percentile score like Novato's can end up mattering for. More on the disclosure law.
Hardening a home in Novato
Novato's 80.6% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 17,180 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Novato. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Novato, see the exposure-zones guide.