Tea, SD
How exposed is Tea to wildfire?
Tea sits at the 45th 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 1,750 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Tea at the 45th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Tea's buildings actually sit
Only 14.5% of Tea's 1,750 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 85.5% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Tea compares
Tea ranks lower within South Dakota (21st percentile statewide) than its 45th national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Tea ranks 17,411 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,228 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 348 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Tea
At the 45th national percentile, Tea rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
Tea's 85.5% 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
Tea's 45th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Tea, see the exposure-zones guide.