St. Michaels, MD
St. Michaels wildfire risk explained
St. Michaels sits at the 57th 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 829 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks St. Michaels at the 56th 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
USFS classifies 77.8% of St. Michaels's buildings as Minimal exposure, the largest of the three zones here by a wide margin over 22.2% Direct and 0% Indirect — a landscape-level risk rather than a building-by-building one.
Where St. Michaels ranks
St. Michaels's 80th-percentile standing inside Maryland outpaces its 57th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, St. Michaels ranks 13,488 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,355 by building count (1 is largest). Within Maryland alone, it ranks 104 of 527 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Maryland on its state page.
St. Michaels and the insurance market
At the 57th national percentile, St. Michaels rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in St. Michaels
St. Michaels's 77.8% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 829 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for St. Michaels. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond St. Michaels, see the exposure-zones guide.