Water Valley, KY
Water Valley wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Water Valley at the 24th national percentile for risk to structures, close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a score built from 191 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Water Valley's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 25th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
191 buildings are counted in Water Valley, and 52.9% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
How Water Valley compares
Compare Water Valley's two percentiles: 45th within Kentucky, only 24th nationally — a gap of 21 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Water Valley ranks 23,914 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 25,201 by building count (1 is largest). Within Kentucky alone, it ranks 303 of 552 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Kentucky on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Water Valley
At the 24th national percentile, Water Valley rates moderate 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 52.9% of Water Valley in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Water Valley's 24th-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 Water Valley, see the exposure-zones guide.