St. Cloud, MN
How exposed is St. Cloud to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, St. Cloud lands at the 55th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 22,520 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks St. Cloud at the 54th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of St. Cloud's buildings (71.7% of 22,520) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 22,520 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where St. Cloud ranks
Compare St. Cloud's two percentiles: 80th within Minnesota, only 55th nationally — a gap of 25 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Cloud ranks 14,151 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 591 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 180 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
St. Cloud and the insurance market
St. Cloud's elevated rating (55th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in St. Cloud
Even with 71.7% of St. Cloud outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where St. Cloud's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 22,520 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for St. Cloud. The exposure-zones guide covers what St. Cloud's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.