Superior, MT
Superior, MT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Superior at the 93rd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 589 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Superior at the 90th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Superior's buildings actually sit
77.6% of Superior's 589 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 22.4% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Superior against the rest of the country
Superior's risk sits at a similar level relative to Montana (83rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (93rd) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Superior ranks 2,368 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 15,981 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 82 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
Superior's 93rd-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Superior (77.6% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Superior's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Superior's 2,368-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Superior's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.