Wildfire risk in Alpine County: where it is highest, and why
Wildfire risk in Alpine County spans a wide range across the places we scored. Scores run from 41.8 near Markleeville to 79.4 in Markleeville, with a county median of 63.2.
Alpine County — the largest fires on record, at their perimeter centres, with the county’s main communities. Select a marker for its detail.
At a glance
Half of Alpine County scores High or worse
We scored 152 points across Alpine County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 7% of them come out Very High, while 8% are Moderate. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.
85%
Very High7% · 11 of 152 pointsHigh85% · 129 of 152 pointsModerate8% · 12 of 152 points
Safest end we measured41.8near Markleeville · Moderate
Middle of the county63.2High — half of Alpine County is above this
Most exposed end we measured79.4near Markleeville · Very High
And the federal models agree it is a fire county
Relatively ModerateFEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 89.1 / 100
$1.2M / yrFEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Moderate
0.59%USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 1.38%
6.32 ftUSFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 99% of the county carries burnable fuel
FEMA NRI also rates Alpine County: all-hazards risk Very Low · social vulnerability Relatively Moderate · community resilience Relatively Moderate · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0102.
Sources: FEMA National Risk Index 1.20.0 (Dec 2025), county record · USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities v2.0, mean of the grid cells inside the county. Both describe the county as a whole, never an address in it.
What does your Alpine County address score?
A county range shows the spread. Your parcel sits somewhere inside it — the report says where, and what to do about it.
Free to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan
Local context
What the data says about Alpine County
Most scored locations fall in the High tier: 129 points are High, while 11 are Very High. FEMA’s National Risk Index rates the county’s wildfire risk as "Relatively Moderate" overall.
Fire record
Where the fires actually were
The largest fire in this county’s records is the Tamarack fire in 2021 at 67,054 acres. It is also the most recent large fire.
Other major fires tied to Alpine County include the Caldor fire (2021), 221,784 acres, and the Donnell fire (2018), 36,461 acres. Both are listed as partly in the county.
Since 1984, Alpine County has had 150,942 acres burn within mapped perimeters. That equals 32% of the county, across 55 fire perimeters.
Tamarack Fire, 2021 — Alpine County.
Photo: United States Forest Service · Public domainSlink Fire, 2020 — Alpine County.
Photo: Intermountain Region US Forest Service · Public domain
55mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
150,942acres inside those perimeters since 1984
32.0%of the county's area, as a share of 1,910 km²
Tamarack 2021most recent large fire on record
Before 20002000s2010s2020s
Fire perimeters coloured by decade. Select a perimeter for its name, year and size.
Named fires on record
Tamarack Fire202167,054 acres
Slink Fire202026,752 acres
Washington Fire201517,790 acres
Donnell Fire201836,461 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Caldor Fire2021221,784 acres in totalcrossed into the county
McCormick Fire20174,423 acres
Indian Fire198417,771 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Acorn Fire19876,354 acres
Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Tamarack 2021.
Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.
Communities
Where in the county you are matters most
Markleeville (population 191) has a median wildfire risk score of 68.6.
Bear Valley (population 128) has a median score of 53.8.
For county-wide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Alpine County’s expected annual wildfire loss as "Relatively Moderate," and its community resilience rating as "Relatively Moderate."
Markleevillevillage · 191 people
68.6 High
Bear Valleyvillage · 128 people
53.8 High
The score is the median of the sampled points nearest that community — a community-scale
indicator, not a score for any individual property in it. Population comes from the
community's own record where the source carries one.
Terrain & fuels
Terrain, vegetation and fuels
Terrain scores range from 30.0 near Bear Valley to 65.0 near Markleeville, with a median of 55.0. That shows meaningful slope/topography differences between scored locations.
Vegetation and fuels scores are generally higher: 46.3 in Bear Valley at the low end and 80.0 near Bear Valley at the high end, with a median of 74.6.
Fire history also varies sharply, from 5.0 near Bear Valley to 95.0 near Markleeville. The median fire-history score is 50.0.
55median terrain score (max 65 near Markleeville)
74.6median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Bear Valley)
Fire weather
Fire weather across Alpine County
Fire weather was measured in Alpine County, and the spread is fairly tight in the scored locations: 54.3 at the low end and 62.1 at the high end.
A separate USFS burn-probability product reports a mean annual burn probability of 0.59% and a 90th-percentile cell value of 1.38%. It also indicates that 99.2% of the county can burn.
54.3lowest fire-weather score — near Bear Valley
62.1highest fire-weather score — near Bear Valley
What drives it
Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't
Risk varies a lot inside the county. The highest scored location is in Markleeville at 79.4, while the lowest scored location is near Markleeville at 41.8.
At the community level, Markleeville’s median score is 68.6. Bear Valley’s median is 53.8.
So two places in the same county can sit in different parts of the risk range, even when both are in mountain terrain.
Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Alpine County, on the same 0–100 scale.
A long bar is a part of the risk that depends on where you are; a short one is the same
almost everywhere.
Terrain
30–65highest near Markleeville
Vegetation & fuels
46.3–80highest near Bear Valley
Hazard zone
28.2–90highest near Markleeville
Fire history
5–95highest near Markleeville
Fire weather
54.3–62.1highest near Bear Valley
Overall score
41.8–79.4highest near Markleeville
The tick on each bar is the middle value. Tier boundaries — Moderate at 25, High at 50,
Very High at 75 — are the faint lines behind them.
Show every number behind these bars
Layer
Min
Median
Max
Lowest place
Highest place
Points
Terrain
30
55
65
near Bear Valley
near Markleeville
152
Vegetation & fuels
46.3
74.6
80
Bear Valley
near Bear Valley
152
Hazard zone
28.2
73.8
90
near Bear Valley
Markleeville
152
Fire history
5
50
95
near Bear Valley
near Markleeville
152
Fire weather
54.3
54.3
62.1
near Bear Valley
near Bear Valley
152
Composite
41.8
63.2
79.4
near Markleeville
Markleeville
152
Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.59% (90th percentile cell: 1.38%), with a mean conditional flame length of 6.32 ft. 99% of the 24,676 grid cells inside the county carry burnable fuel at all.
Source: USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities v2.0 (ImageServer, county extent).
CAL FIRE has no mapped Fire Hazard Severity Zone at 137 of the 152 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas, and most of this county is state or federal land. At 137 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead.
152 sample points on a ~2.3 km grid, plus one at the centre of each community, weighted with the Satelife county profile v1 · median layer coverage 100%. Scores are 0–100 and comparable within the county, not across states.
For a property
What a county range means for one address
Property-level features were not measured at all in this county scoring.
What is available is place-based wildfire risk. Most scored points are in the High tier (129), with smaller groups in Moderate (12) and Very High (11).
That means property context here comes from where a home sits in the county pattern, which ranges from 41.8 to 79.4 in the scored locations.
Across 152 sampled points in Alpine County, the score runs from
41.8 to 79.4 — two neighbouring parcels can sit in different tiers.
A county number is the middle of that spread; it says nothing about which end yours is at.
Find out where your Alpine County parcel sits
Slope, the fuel touching the structure, the road out, the fire history within a mile — measured at your address, not averaged across the county.
Free to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan
Coverage
ZIP codes we cover in Alpine County
Every one of the 10 ZIP areas that touch Alpine County — we run address-level
reports in all of them. They are grouped by the median score of the points we sampled inside
each, which is a neighbourhood-scale indicator and not a score for any
property: two homes in the same ZIP routinely land in different tiers.
Frequently asked questions about Alpine County wildfire risk
How much of Alpine County has burned since 1984?
150,942 acres have burned since 1984, and 32% of the county has burned across 55 mapped fire perimeters.
What is the largest and most recent large fire in this county’s records?
Tamarack (2021) is both the largest and the most recent large fire, at 67,054 acres.
Which scored community is higher risk, Markleeville or Bear Valley?
Markleeville is higher by median score: 68.6 versus 53.8 for Bear Valley.
What does FEMA say about wildfire risk in Alpine County?
FEMA’s National Risk Index rates the county’s wildfire risk as "Relatively Moderate" and its expected annual wildfire loss as "Relatively Moderate."
Is fire weather measured here, and what about burn probability?
Yes. Fire weather scores were measured, ranging from 54.3 to 62.1 in the scored locations. Separately, the USFS product reports 0.59% mean annual burn probability and 1.38% at the 90th-percentile cell.
This page is generated from a Alpine County data pack assembled on 2026-08-19 (pack v1.0). Scores are sampled across the
county, not measured at any individual address, and are informational decision support — not a
substitute for official evacuation orders, a fire-agency hazard determination, or an insurer's
underwriting judgement.
Data versions: fema_nri 1.20.0 (Dec 2025) · landfire per adapter · nifc_history All Years View · wfigs current · wrc v2.0 (2024) · zcta Census 2020.
What does your parcel look like, layer by layer?
A county range shows the spread. An address-level Satelife report shows where in that spread your property actually sits — PDF, per-layer score, and a prioritized mitigation plan.
