Sauk City, WI
How exposed is Sauk City to wildfire?
Sauk City sits at the 25th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 1,598 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 Sauk City at the 26th percentile, close to its 25th-percentile risk score.
Where Sauk City's buildings actually sit
1,598 buildings are counted in Sauk City, and 59.8% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 5.1% in Direct exposure or the 35% rated Minimal.
Sauk City against the rest of the country
Within Wisconsin, Sauk City ranks higher (49th percentile) than it does nationally (25th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sauk City ranks 23,718 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,777 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 418 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Sauk City
Sauk City's moderate rating (25th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Sauk City (59.8% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Sauk City's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Sauk City's 23,718-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sauk City's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.