Whitewater, MT
Whitewater wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Whitewater lands at the 62nd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 83 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Whitewater at the 60th percentile, close to its 62nd-percentile risk score.
Whitewater's building exposure, zone by zone
83 buildings are counted in Whitewater, and 69.9% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 30.1% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
Whitewater against the rest of the country
Inside Montana, Whitewater sits at just the 28th percentile even though it scores 62nd nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Whitewater ranks 11,877 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,769 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 342 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
Whitewater's high rating (62nd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Whitewater (69.9% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
Where Whitewater's figures come from
Whitewater's 62nd-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 Whitewater's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.