Whitetail, MT
Whitetail, MT's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Whitetail sits at the 53rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 98 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Whitetail at the 51st percentile, close to its 53rd-percentile risk score.
Where Whitetail's buildings actually sit
Most of Whitetail's buildings (58.2%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Whitetail compares
Whitetail's 53rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 15th ranking inside Montana does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 38 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Whitetail ranks 14,881 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,136 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 403 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Whitetail's elevated wildfire rating (53rd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Whitetail (58.2% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Whitetail's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Whitetail's 14,881-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Whitetail's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.