South Browning, MT
South Browning wildfire risk explained
USFS scores South Browning at the 85th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 587 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks South Browning at the 85th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
South Browning's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of South Browning's buildings (70.9%) 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.
South Browning against the rest of the country
South Browning's 85th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 62nd ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 23 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Browning ranks 4,895 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,003 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 182 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
South Browning's 85th-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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in South Browning (70.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
South Browning's 85th-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 South Browning, see the exposure-zones guide.