How do I check natural disaster risk for my address?

Run the address through ArchipelAI's homeowner demo for a free score across flood, wildfire, wind, heat, and grid outages, plus a 20-year forward projection. FEMA's National Risk Index also publishes a county-level score for free.

What's the difference between county risk and address risk?

County risk averages across thousands of homes. Address risk uses your exact coordinates, local elevation, distance to vegetation or coast, and microclimate. The difference between two houses on the same street can be larger than the difference between two counties.

Which perils should I worry about most?

It depends on geography. Coastal Southeast: hurricane, flood, heat. Western US: wildfire, drought, smoke. Plains: tornado, hail, severe convective storms. Northeast: flood, ice, severe winter. ArchipelAI's score breaks all of these out per address.

How often does the risk profile change?

Address-level risk shifts year to year as climate, vegetation, and infrastructure change. Major remaps (post-storm, post-fire) can move scores meaningfully overnight.

Is this data the same as FEMA's flood maps?

We use FEMA's official maps as one input, alongside 30 years of NOAA observed weather, USGS hazard data, current sea-level records, and our own ensemble physics simulations. The output is a current-climate view, not a regulatory boundary.

Natural disaster risk by address: flood, fire, wind, heat, quake.

Flood, fire, wind, heat, and quake — assessed for the exact house, not the surrounding county.

Why address-level beats county-level

FEMA's National Risk Index is a useful starting point, but it scores entire counties. A coastal county might score "very high" for hurricane while half the homes inside it sit on bedrock 80 feet above sea level. The opposite is also true — a "low risk" inland county can contain a steep-slope, vegetation-adjacent street with serious wildfire exposure. The information that matters for a single house is at the address grain.

The perils that actually matter for US homes

Flood

Pluvial (rainfall), fluvial (river), and coastal storm surge. FEMA maps cover the second two reasonably well and the first poorly. A current-climate view should combine FEMA zones with 30 years of observed rainfall and a forward projection.

Wildfire

Distance to wildland, vegetation density, slope, prevailing wind, and recent drought. The risk gradient across a single neighborhood can be huge — a house on the windward side of a ridge can be three times more exposed than a house two blocks down.

Wind / hurricane / tornado

Sustained hurricane wind for coastal Southeast and Gulf. Severe convective wind and tornado for the Plains and Southeast. Damage scales with construction type — Class-A roofs, hurricane straps, and impact glass make order-of-magnitude differences in modeled loss.

Heat

Days above 95°F, nighttime minimums above 80°F, and consecutive heat-wave duration. Matters for health, energy cost, and grid reliability. Heat exposure is rising fastest in the Southwest and Texas.

Earthquake and tsunami

Concentrated in the West Coast, Alaska, parts of the Intermountain West, and the New Madrid zone. USGS publishes high-resolution seismic hazard data; combine with construction year (pre- vs post-modern code) and soil type.

Grid / power outage

Often overlooked, but increasingly the secondary loss after every major peril. Hours-per-year of outage is a strong indicator of climate-driven grid stress.

How to read an address-level score

Composite score. A single 0–100 number that summarizes overall exposure. Useful for comparing two addresses fast.
Per-peril breakdown. Which perils dominate. A "70 composite" driven by wildfire is a very different house than a "70" driven by flood.
20-year outlook. Where the same address is projected to sit under a central climate scenario. The trajectory matters more than today's snapshot for a long-hold asset.
Insurability index. Whether admitted-market carriers are likely to keep writing the address. This is the indicator that moves price.

Where to start

Run any US address through the ArchipelAI homeowner demo for a free composite score, per-peril breakdown, and a 20-year outlook. The demo uses sample data for some cities — sign in and choose a plan to run on your real address with live observed feeds.

Natural disaster risk by address.