Skykomish, WA
Skykomish wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Skykomish at the 84th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 210 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Skykomish at the 81st percentile, close to its 84th-percentile risk score.
Skykomish's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Skykomish (73.8% of 210 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 26.2% sit in the Direct zone.
Skykomish against the rest of the country
Skykomish's risk sits at a similar level relative to Washington (76th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (84th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Skykomish ranks 5,059 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,502 by building count (1 is largest). Within Washington alone, it ranks 154 of 628 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Washington on its state page.
Skykomish and the insurance market
Skykomish's 84th-percentile, very 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Skykomish's 73.8% 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 210 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Skykomish. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Skykomish, see the exposure-zones guide.