Walnut, MS
How exposed is Walnut to wildfire?
USFS scores Walnut at the 76th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 536 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Walnut at the 79th percentile, close to its 76th-percentile risk score.
Walnut's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Walnut: 64.4% of its 536 buildings, versus 35.6% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
Walnut against the rest of the country
Walnut's risk sits at a similar level relative to Mississippi (73rd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (76th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Walnut ranks 7,566 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 16,781 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 113 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 76th percentile nationally, Walnut carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Walnut's 64.4% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Walnut's 76th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Walnut, see the exposure-zones guide.