Wessington, SD
How exposed is Wessington to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Wessington at the 68th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 268 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Wessington at the 68th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Wessington's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS puts 70.5% of Wessington's 268 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 29.5% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Where Wessington ranks
Wessington's risk sits at a similar level relative to South Dakota (62nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (68th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wessington ranks 10,192 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,588 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 167 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Wessington
Wessington's 68th-percentile, 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
Wessington's 70.5% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 268 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Wessington. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Wessington, see the exposure-zones guide.