St. Joseph, MN
How exposed is St. Joseph to wildfire?
USFS scores St. Joseph at the 56th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 2,543 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, St. Joseph's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 55th percentile nationally.
St. Joseph's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 15.4% of St. Joseph's 2,543 buildings carry Direct exposure and 6.3% carry Indirect; the remaining 78.4% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
St. Joseph against the rest of the country
Compare St. Joseph'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, St. Joseph ranks 13,959 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,220 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 169 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
St. Joseph's elevated rating (56th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
With 78.4% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, St. Joseph gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
Where St. Joseph's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,543 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for St. Joseph. The exposure-zones guide covers what St. Joseph's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.