Every Franklin County community rates high for potential tick encounters under a new town-level model, with Temple, Weld, Sandy River Plantation, Carrabassett Valley and Carthage tied for the county’s highest peak-season score.

The findings come from TickZone, a free website that combines county-level Lyme disease data with satellite land-cover information, seasonal tick activity and daily weather. Founder Nathan Burnett cautions that the scores estimate the likelihood of encountering ticks and do not predict infections.

The five highest-rated communities each received a peak-season score of 82. Dallas Plantation, Industry, Avon, Coplin Plantation, Phillips, New Vineyard and Kingfield followed with scores of 81.

Farmington had the county’s lowest score at 76 but remained in the model’s high-risk category.

“There is no low-risk corner of Franklin County,” Burnett said.

Burnett said the scores are clustered closely enough that residents should focus more on the high designation than each town’s precise position. Five communities scored 82, seven scored 81 and five scored 80.

“Honestly, they are at the top but not by much, and not alone,” Burnett said of Temple and Weld. “I would not say Temple and Weld stand apart from the county; I would say Franklin is uniformly high and these are the towns right at its ceiling.”

Maine had reported 1,588 cases of tick-borne Lyme disease as of July 7, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year, the state recorded a total of 4,257 cases.

Franklin County has an annual Lyme disease rate of about 178 cases per 100,000 residents, according to CDC data cited by TickZone. Because Lyme disease cases are reported at the county level rather than by municipality, the model gives each Franklin County community the same disease-incidence figure and uses habitat and weather to distinguish among towns.

Temple and Weld are about 98% forested, Burnett said. The model considers both the amount of forest and the density of edges where woods meet yards, fields, trails and other open areas.

“The boundary between woods and open ground is where people actually meet ticks,” Burnett said.

The model produces a stable peak-season score for each community and a live score updated each morning. Weather can move a town’s daily rating above or below its seasonal figure based on temperature, humidity and rainfall during the previous seven days.

Blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks, account for most of the modeled risk in Franklin County, Burnett said. Nymph activity generally peaks in June and July before declining through August, followed by a smaller increase when adult ticks become more active in the fall.

The scores are intended as a general precaution signal rather than a prediction for a particular property, trail or outdoor trip.

“It is best read as a town-level measure of how likely you are to encounter ticks,” Burnett said. “It is not a yard-by-yard or trail-by-trail rating within a town, and it does not say a given walk will or will not produce a tick.”

Burnett emphasized that TickZone is an exposure model, not an epidemiological forecast.

“It is not a case forecast, because no honest model predicts infections town by town, and a high score is a reason to take precautions rather than proof anyone was infected,” he said. “It is meant to sit alongside state surveillance, not replace it.”

The town-level rankings have not been validated through field sampling. Burnett said he is seeking a university or health nonprofit to compare them with collected ticks and reported encounters.

Burnett, who is based in Massachusetts, created TickZone this year after members of his family contracted Lyme disease. The website now provides scores for communities across the country.

“My aunt was sick with Lyme for more than a year, and my younger brother had it as well, though we caught his early and he recovered,” Burnett said. “That is a big part of why this has never felt abstract to me.”

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