Sobieski, MN
How exposed is Sobieski to wildfire?
USFS scores Sobieski at the 56th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 256 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Sobieski at the 56th percentile, close to its 56th-percentile risk score.
Sobieski's building exposure, zone by zone
88.3% of Sobieski's 256 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 226 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 11.7% are Minimal.
Where Sobieski ranks
Compare Sobieski's two percentiles: 82nd within Minnesota, only 56th nationally — a gap of 26 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sobieski ranks 13,931 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,944 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 166 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Sobieski
Sobieski's elevated wildfire rating (56th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Sobieski
Sobieski's 88.3% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Sobieski's 56th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Sobieski, see the exposure-zones guide.