Wessington Springs, SD
Wessington Springs wildfire risk explained
Wessington Springs's 913 buildings earn a 76th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Wessington Springs at the 74th percentile, close to its 76th-percentile risk score.
Where Wessington Springs's buildings actually sit
75.1% of Wessington Springs's 913 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 24.9% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Wessington Springs compares
There's little gap between Wessington Springs's 76th national percentile and its 73rd percentile inside South Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wessington Springs ranks 7,697 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 12,615 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 118 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Wessington Springs
Wessington Springs's 76th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Wessington Springs's 75.1% 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.
Where Wessington Springs's figures come from
Wessington Springs's 76th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Wessington Springs's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.