Natural hazards · Forest

Forest, WI natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Forest comes from cold waves, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community.

FEMA National Risk Index, December 2025 · OpenFEMA claims, aid & declarations

Expected damage

How exposed is Forest?

Moderate

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Forest to be higher than in 52% of U.S. communities, mostly from cold waves and inland flooding.

Cold waves41%Inland flooding37%Tornadoes7%Everything else15%

By hazard

What Forest faces

Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how that compares with the rest of the country.

Cold waves

41% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 42% of U.S. places

Recorded about 7 times a year in the area

Inland flooding

37% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 70% of U.S. places

Recorded about 3 times a year in the area

Tornadoes

7% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 79% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 14 years in the area

Lower here

HurricanesHailIce stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightningDrought

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic activity

Flood risk changes street by street. Check a specific address on FEMA’s flood map, and ask about flood insurance before you buy.

Flood insurance claims

Does Forest flood?

FEMA's records show no paid flood insurance claims in Forest.

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Forest isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.

Insurance rates: Vernon County.

Disasters that hit Forest

Federal disasters declared here

None of the disasters declared for Vernon County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Forest itself in FEMA’s records.

Brought FEMA money into ForestDeclared for Vernon County only

Vernon County has had 21 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often severe storms and floods.

Around Forest

Forest and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Wellingtonmostly inland floodingHigh

Whitestownmostly inland floodingHigh

Forestmostly cold wavesModerate

Hillsboromostly cold wavesModerate

Unionmostly cold wavesModerate

About these numbers

How to read this page

An average, not a forecastFEMA’s National Risk Index estimates the damage 18 kinds of natural hazards cause in a typical year, from decades of records and models. A quiet decade can follow a bad year.

Compared by rate“Higher than N%” compares yearly damage as a share of what’s here, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings. Forest is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Forest’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Town of Forest. FEMA’s model follows property values, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.

Sources: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025); OpenFEMA: NFIP redacted claims, multiple-loss properties, community status book and residential penetration rates, housing assistance (owners and renters), public assistance funded projects, hazard mitigation properties and disaster declarations. Census tracts: U.S. Census Bureau.