St. Charles, SD
St. Charles, SD's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
St. Charles sits at the 59th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 20 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 St. Charles at the 56th percentile, close to its 59th-percentile risk score.
Where St. Charles's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 100% of St. Charles's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 20 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most. This is a small settlement by building count — 20 total — so these shares describe a handful of structures, not a statistical average across thousands.
How St. Charles compares
St. Charles scores 59th nationally and 45th within South Dakota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Charles ranks 12,933 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,461 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 242 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
St. Charles's elevated rating (59th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
St. Charles's 100% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 20 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for St. Charles. At 20 buildings, St. Charles is close to the size where USFS's data gets thin — the data-quality guide explains why 517 places nationally get no score at all.