---
title: "Wildfire Risk in Inyo County, CA 2026 | Satelife"
description: "Wildfire risk in Inyo County varies a lot by location. The overall scores in the places we scored run from 36.1 in unincorporated Inyo County to 75.6 near Big Pine / Tovowahamatü, with a middle value of 49.2."
image: "https://satelife.ai/images/wildfire-risk/inyo-county/generated/inyo-county-locator.webp"
canonical: "https://satelife.ai/wildfire-risk/california/inyo-county/"
---

[Home](/)›[Wildfire Risk](/wildfire-risk/)›[California](/wildfire-risk/california/)›Inyo County

Inyo County, California

# Wildfire risk in Inyo County: _where it is highest_, and why

Wildfire risk in Inyo County varies a lot by location. The overall scores in the places we scored run from 36.1 in unincorporated Inyo County to 75.6 near Big Pine / Tovowahamatü, with a middle value of 49.2.

[Score my Inyo County address →](#score-my-address) [How risky is this county? ↓](#risk-at-a-glance)

Before 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity

Inyo 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 Inyo County scores _Moderate_ or worse

We scored 156 points across Inyo County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 1% of them come out Very High, while 56% are Moderate. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

43%

56%

**Very High** 1% · 1 of 156 points **High** 43% · 67 of 156 points **Moderate** 56% · 88 of 156 points

Safest end we measured 36.1 near unincorporated Inyo County · Moderate

Middle of the county 49.2 Moderate — half of Inyo County is above this

Most exposed end we measured 75.6 near Big Pine / Tovowahamatü · Very High

### And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively Low FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 83.7 / 100

$429k / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Low

0.09% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 0.23%

4.18 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 93% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates Inyo County: all-hazards risk Relatively Low · social vulnerability Very High · community resilience Relatively Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0023.

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 Inyo 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 _Inyo County_

Most scored locations fall in the Moderate tier, with 88 points. Another 67 points are in High.

Only 1 point is in Very High, and none are in Low.

Fire record

## Where the fires _actually were_

Since 1984, fires have burned 175,987 acres in Inyo County, and 2.7% of the county has burned in that period. The record includes 125 fire perimeters.

The largest listed fire is Oak (2007), at 27,063 acres.

The most recent large fire is Rock (2026), at 11,737 acres.

Another major event in this list is Taboose (2019), which reached 10,268 acres.

125 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984

175,987 acres inside those perimeters since 1984

2.7% of the county's area, as a share of 26,357.2 km²

Rock 2026 most 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

-   **Oak Fire**200727,063 acres
-   **Rock Fire**202611,737 acres
-   **Taboose Fire**201910,268 acres
-   **China Lake Fire**200510,358 acres
-   **Calico Fire**20069,278 acres
-   **Horseshoe Fire**20244,530 acres
-   **John Fire**20115,800 acres
-   **Sage Fire**20076,463 acres

Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Oak 2007. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.

Communities

## Where in the county you are _matters most_

Among the named communities shown here, Bishop has a middle score of 56.2, Big Pine / Tovowahamatü is 54.7, and Lone Pine is 53.9.

Independence is 52.0 and Tecopa is 53.6, while Darwin is lower at 44.8.

So, community-level risk in Inyo County sits in a fairly tight band for most places, with Darwin as the clearest lower outlier in this set.

Bishop town · 3,879 people

56.2 _High_

Big Pine / Tovowahamatü village · 1,875 people

54.7 _High_

Lone Pine village · 2,035 people

53.9 _High_

Tecopa village · 120 people

53.6 _High_

Independence village · 669 people

52 _High_

Darwin village · 43 people

44.8 _Moderate_

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-related risk ranges from 5.0 in unincorporated Inyo County to 65.0 near Tecopa, with a middle value of 65.0.

Vegetation and fuels are high in many scored places: the middle value is 79.5, and the top value is 80.0 near Tecopa. The lowest listed point is 20.0 in Bishop.

65 median terrain score (max 65 near Tecopa)

79.5 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Tecopa)

Fire weather

## Fire weather across _Inyo County_

Fire weather was measured across the county, with scores from 56.1 near Bishop to 68.3 near Tecopa. The middle value is 60.5.

That spread shows elevated fire-weather exposure in many scored locations, with the higher end concentrated near Tecopa.

56.1 lowest fire-weather score — near Bishop

68.3 highest fire-weather score — near Tecopa

What drives it

## Which part of the risk _moves_, and which doesn't

Risk is not uniform from one community to another. Bishop’s middle score is 56.2, while Darwin’s is 44.8.

Big Pine / Tovowahamatü is 54.7 and Lone Pine is 53.9, with Independence at 52.0.

At the county scale, the highest scored point is near Big Pine / Tovowahamatü at 75.6, while the lowest is in unincorporated Inyo County at 36.1.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Inyo 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

5–65 highest near Tecopa

Vegetation & fuels

20–80 highest near Tecopa

Hazard zone

10–90 highest near Darwin

Fire history

5–95 highest near Independence

Fire weather

56.1–68.3 highest near Tecopa

Overall score

36.1–75.6 highest near Big Pine / Tovowahamatü

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

5

65

65

unincorporated Inyo County

near Tecopa

156

Vegetation & fuels

20

79.5

80

Bishop

near Tecopa

156

Hazard zone

10

16.2

90

unincorporated Inyo County

Darwin

156

Fire history

5

5

95

unincorporated Inyo County

near Independence

156

Fire weather

56.1

60.5

68.3

near Bishop

near Tecopa

156

Composite

36.1

49.2

75.6

unincorporated Inyo County

near Big Pine / Tovowahamatü

156

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at **0.09%** (90th percentile cell: **0.23%**), with a mean conditional flame length of **4.18 ft**. **93%** of the 20,232 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 **138** of the 156 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas, and most of this county is state or federal land. At **64** of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 74 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.

156 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_

In the hazard-zone measure, scores run from 10.0 in unincorporated Inyo County to 90.0 in Darwin, with a middle value of 16.2.

Past-fire exposure is very uneven: the fire-history score reaches 95.0 near Independence, while the middle value is 5.0. That means prior burn patterns contribute very differently from place to place.

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Inyo County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Low and expected annual wildfire loss as Relatively Low. In that same index, social vulnerability is rated Very High.

A separate USFS communities product estimates mean annual burn probability at 0.09%, with a 90th-percentile cell at 0.23%. It also reports that 92.8% of the county can burn; this is modeled burn probability, not a fire-weather rating.

Across 156 sampled points in Inyo County, the score runs from 36.1 to 75.6 — 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 Inyo 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 Inyo County

Every one of the 20 ZIP areas that touch Inyo 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.

**High** 6 ZIPs

-   [93514 Bishop55](/wildfire-risk/zip/93514/)
-   [93513 Big Pine / Tovowahamatü55](/wildfire-risk/zip/93513/)
-   [93549 Darwin55](/wildfire-risk/zip/93549/)
-   [89060 54](/wildfire-risk/zip/89060/)
-   [92384 Tecopa54](/wildfire-risk/zip/92384/)
-   [93545 Lone Pine53](/wildfire-risk/zip/93545/)

**Moderate** 4 ZIPs

-   [92389 Tecopa46](/wildfire-risk/zip/92389/)
-   [93526 Independence46](/wildfire-risk/zip/93526/)
-   [92328 44](/wildfire-risk/zip/92328/)
-   [93522 Darwin42](/wildfire-risk/zip/93522/)

**No sampled point inside** 10 ZIPs

[89013](/wildfire-risk/zip/89013/) · [89019](/wildfire-risk/zip/89019/) · [89020](/wildfire-risk/zip/89020/) · [89048](/wildfire-risk/zip/89048/) · [89061 Tecopa](/wildfire-risk/zip/89061/) · [93255](/wildfire-risk/zip/93255/) · [93527](/wildfire-risk/zip/93527/) · [93530 Lone Pine](/wildfire-risk/zip/93530/) · [93546](/wildfire-risk/zip/93546/) · [93634](/wildfire-risk/zip/93634/)

Grouped from 10 of 20 ZIP areas — the rest had no sample point fall inside them. The community shown is the nearest mapped place to the ZIP's centre.

ZIP areas are Census 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas intersecting the county boundary.

Where to go next

## Inyo County wildfire risk _in context_

[California wildfire risk The statewide picture and every county page we publish](/wildfire-risk/california/) [Wildfire risk by state Every state and county we cover](/wildfire-risk/) [How Satelife calculates wildfire risk Data sources, layers, score composition, honest limits](/wildfire-risk/methodology/) [Create a wildfire evacuation plan Zones, egress routes, refuge areas](/wildfire-evacuation-plan/) [Run a report for a Inyo County address PDF + score + mitigation plan](/#cta)

FAQ

## Frequently asked questions about _Inyo County wildfire risk_

How much of Inyo County has burned since 1984?

2.7% of the county has burned since 1984, totaling 175,987 acres.

What are the key fires to know here?

The largest listed fire is Oak (2007) at 27,063 acres. The most recent large fire is Rock (2026) at 11,737 acres.

Does most of the county score High wildfire risk?

Most scored points are in the Moderate tier (88 points), followed by High (67 points). Only 1 point is Very High, and none are Low.

Are USFS burn-probability values the same thing as fire weather?

No. The USFS values here are modeled burn probability (0.09% mean annual, 0.23% at the 90th-percentile cell), while fire weather is a separate score layer.

What does FEMA say about county-wide wildfire risk?

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Inyo County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Low, and its expected annual wildfire loss as Relatively Low.

This page is generated from a Inyo 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.

[Start with your address →](/#cta)

[![PRR](/images/prr.png)](/ficha-de-website-voucher-satelife.pdf)

© 2024–2026 Satelife, Lda. All rights reserved.

Satelife reports are for informational purposes only and do not constitute insurance, financial, or legal advice.
