Scobey, MT
How exposed is Scobey to wildfire?
Scobey sits at the 67th 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 951 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 Scobey at the 67th percentile, close to its 67th-percentile risk score.
Scobey's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Scobey (98.2% of 951 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 1.8% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Scobey ranks
Scobey's 67th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 35th ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 32 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Scobey ranks 10,340 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,300 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 309 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Scobey
Scobey's 67th-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.
Hardening a home in Scobey
Because 98.2% of Scobey's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Scobey's figures come from
Scobey's 67th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Scobey's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.