Nowata, OK
Nowata wildfire risk explained
Nowata sits at the 75th 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 2,312 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 Nowata at the 76th percentile, close to its 75th-percentile risk score.
Where Nowata's buildings actually sit
Most of Nowata's buildings (63.1%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Nowata compares
Inside Oklahoma, Nowata sits at just the 14th percentile even though it scores 75th 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, Nowata ranks 8,009 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,674 by building count (1 is largest). Within Oklahoma alone, it ranks 717 of 834 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Oklahoma on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Nowata's high rating (75th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
Nowata's 63.1% 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
Nowata's 75th-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 Nowata, see the exposure-zones guide.