Tempe, AZ
Tempe wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Tempe at the 52nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 52,674 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Tempe at the 50th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Tempe's building exposure, zone by zone
Tempe rates 96.4% Minimal exposure against just 1.9% Direct and 1.7% Indirect — of 52,674 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually. At 52,674 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Tempe compares
Tempe ranks lower within Arizona (20th percentile statewide) than its 52nd national percentile suggests alone — a calmer spot in a state where wildfire risk generally runs high. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Tempe ranks 15,181 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 158 by building count (1 is largest). Within Arizona alone, it ranks 354 of 441 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Arizona on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Tempe
At the 52nd national percentile, Tempe rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With 96.4% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Tempe gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Tempe's 52nd-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 Tempe, see the exposure-zones guide.