{
  "title": "Wildfire Risk in Kern County, CA 2026 | Satelife",
  "description": "Wildfire risk in Kern County spans a wide range across the places we scored. The lowest overall score is 17.7 in Wasco, the highest is 82.2 near Tehachapi, and the county midpoint is 55.2.",
  "image": "https://satelife.ai/images/wildfire-risk/kern-county/generated/kern-county-locator.webp",
  "canonical": "https://satelife.ai/wildfire-risk/california/kern-county/",
  "content": "[Home](/)›[Wildfire Risk](/wildfire-risk/)›[California](/wildfire-risk/california/)›Kern County\n\nKern County, California\n\n# Wildfire risk in Kern County: _where it is highest_, and why\n\nWildfire risk in Kern County spans a wide range across the places we scored. The lowest overall score is 17.7 in Wasco, the highest is 82.2 near Tehachapi, and the county midpoint is 55.2.\n\n[Score my Kern County address →](#score-my-address) [How risky is this county? ↓](#risk-at-a-glance)\n\nBefore 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity\n\nKern County — the largest fires on record, at their perimeter centres, with the county’s main communities. Select a marker for its detail.\n\nAt a glance\n\n## Half of Kern County scores _High_ or worse\n\nWe scored 179 points across Kern County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 9% of them come out Very High, while 9% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.\n\n54%\n\n28%\n\n**Very High** 9% · 16 of 179 points **High** 54% · 96 of 179 points **Moderate** 28% · 50 of 179 points **Low** 9% · 17 of 179 points\n\nSafest end we measured 17.7 near Wasco · Low\n\nMiddle of the county 55.2 High — half of Kern County is above this\n\nMost exposed end we measured 82.2 near Tehachapi · Very High\n\n### And the federal models agree it is a fire county\n\nRelatively High FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 99.7 / 100\n\n$38.5M / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively High\n\n0.88% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 2.76%\n\n5.2 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 88% of the county carries burnable fuel\n\nFEMA NRI also rates Kern County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively High · community resilience Very Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0055.\n\nSources: 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.\n\nWhat does your Kern County address score?\n\nA county range shows the spread. Your parcel sits somewhere inside it — the report says where, and what to do about it.\n\nFree to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan\n\nLocal context\n\n## What the data says about _Kern County_\n\nMost scored locations fall in the High tier. The count there is 96 points, compared with 50 in Moderate and 16 in Very High.\n\nFEMA’s National Risk Index rates Kern County’s wildfire risk as Relatively High, and also rates expected annual wildfire loss as Relatively High. FEMA also rates county community resilience as Very Low.\n\nIn the U.S. Forest Service wildfire model, Kern County’s mean annual burn probability is 0.88%, and the 90th-percentile cell is 2.76%. The model also indicates 87.6% of the county is in burnable area.\n\nFire record\n\n## Where the fires _actually were_\n\nThe largest fire listed here is the Borel fire (2024), at 59,289 acres. The most recent large fire is the Lost fire (2026).\n\nSince 1984, 832,522 acres have burned in Kern County, and that equals 16% of the county. The county has also had 856 fire perimeters in that period.\n\nAnother major recent fire was Erskine (2016), which burned 48,008 acres in the county.\n\n![Borel Fire (2024) in Kern County, California - On August 8, 2024, the smoke column from the Borel Fire in Kern County.](/images/wildfire-risk/kern-county/photos/smoke-column-from-the-borel-fire-on-august-8-2024.webp)\n\n**Borel Fire, 2024** — Kern County. Photo: InciWeb · [Public domain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smoke_column_from_the_Borel_Fire_on_August_8,_2024.jpg)\n\n![Erskine Fire (2016) in Kern County, California - Photo by Carly Summers, BLM.](/images/wildfire-risk/kern-county/photos/contest-winner-erskine-fire-read-survey-pictured-here-natura.webp)\n\n**Erskine Fire, 2016** — Kern County. Photo: blmcalifornia · [Public domain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CONTEST_WINNER-_Erskine_Fire_READ_Survey_\\(Pictured_here,_Natural_Resource_Specialist_Ryan_Klausch\\)_\\(29708137872\\).jpg)\n\n856 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984\n\n832,522 acres inside those perimeters since 1984\n\n16.0% of the county's area, as a share of 21,034 km²\n\nLost 2026 most recent large fire on record\n\nBefore 20002000s2010s2020s \n\nFire perimeters coloured by decade. Select a perimeter for its name, year and size.\n\nNamed fires on record\n\n-   **Borel Fire**202459,289 acres\n-   **Erskine Fire**201648,008 acres\n-   **French Fire**202126,535 acres\n-   **Piute Fire**200837,346 acres\n-   **Comanche Fire**201125,939 acres\n-   **Breckenridge Complex Fire**201125,223 acres\n-   **Rankin Ranch Fire**197035,976 acres\n-   **Cedar Fire**201629,101 acres in totalcrossed into the county\n\nPerimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Borel 2024. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.\n\nCommunities\n\n## Where in the county you are _matters most_\n\nCommunity medians show clear local differences. Bakersfield is 21.5, Delano is 24.5, and Wasco is 20.2.\n\nAt the higher end, Rosamond is 63.1, Tehachapi is 68.4, and Golden Hills is 64.8.\n\nOther communities fall between those ends, including Arvin at 36.5, Mojave at 50.2, and Lake Isabella at 54.8.\n\nWeldon village · 2,303 people\n\n75.4 _Very High_\n\nBodfish village · 2,008 people\n\n72.8 _High_\n\nOnyx village · 457 people\n\n72.4 _High_\n\nKernville village · 1,549 people\n\n71.4 _High_\n\nTehachapi town · 14,414 people\n\n68.4 _High_\n\nWofford Heights village · 2,213 people\n\n66.2 _High_\n\nMountain Mesa village · 823 people\n\n65.9 _High_\n\nLebec village\n\n65.6 _High_\n\nGolden Hills village · 8,656 people\n\n64.8 _High_\n\nRosamond town · 18,150 people\n\n63.1 _High_\n\n19 more communities in Kern County\n\nInyokern village · 988 people\n\n61.4 _High_\n\nMaricopa village · 1,154 people\n\n57.3 _High_\n\nLake Isabella town · 3,573 people\n\n54.8 _High_\n\nCalifornia City town · 12,659 people\n\n50.2 _High_\n\nMojave town · 4,238 people\n\n50.2 _High_\n\nChina Lake Acres village · 1,757 people\n\n50.2 _High_\n\nRidgecrest city · 28,333 people\n\n43.2 _Moderate_\n\nLost Hills village · 2,370 people\n\n42.6 _Moderate_\n\nTaft village · 9,150 people\n\n39.6 _Moderate_\n\nArvin town · 19,304 people\n\n36.5 _Moderate_\n\nBoron village\n\n33 _Moderate_\n\nMcFarland town · 12,890 people\n\n30.6 _Moderate_\n\nShafter town · 20,070 people\n\n28.1 _Moderate_\n\nLamont village · 15,120 people\n\n27.5 _Moderate_\n\nWeedpatch village · 2,658 people\n\n26.9 _Moderate_\n\nButtonwillow village · 1,508 people\n\n26.7 _Moderate_\n\nDelano city · 53,819 people\n\n24.5 _Low_\n\nBakersfield city · 422,165 people\n\n21.5 _Low_\n\nWasco town · 25,545 people\n\n20.2 _Low_\n\nThe 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.\n\nTerrain & fuels\n\n## Terrain, vegetation and _fuels_\n\nTerrain contributes strongly in many scored locations. Terrain runs from 20.0 near Maricopa to 65.0 near Lebec, with a county midpoint of 65.0.\n\nVegetation and fuels also vary a lot by place. Scores go from 20.0 in Bakersfield to 80.0 near Boron, with a midpoint of 65.2.\n\nTaken together, terrain and fuels are associated with why some communities around the Tehachapi and Kern River Valley areas score higher than valley-floor locations like Bakersfield and Wasco.\n\n65 median terrain score (max 65 near Lebec)\n\n65.2 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Boron)\n\n![LANDFIRE existing vegetation type map of Kern County, California, with the county boundary outlined](/images/wildfire-risk/kern-county/generated/kern-county-fuels.webp)\n\nLANDFIRE existing vegetation type across Kern County — the same fuel data that feeds the vegetation layer of a Satelife property report.\n\nFire weather\n\n## Fire weather across _Kern County_\n\nFire weather was measured across the county and stays elevated in many places we scored. It ranges from 55.7 in unincorporated Kern County to 82.4 in Boron, with a midpoint of 65.2.\n\nFire weather is only one part of wildfire risk. For example, Rosamond reaches 93.7 in hazard-zone scoring, which is a different risk measure than fire weather.\n\n55.7 lowest fire-weather score — near unincorporated Kern County\n\n82.4 highest fire-weather score — near Boron\n\nWhat drives it\n\n## Which part of the risk _moves_, and which doesn't\n\nRisk is not uniform across Kern County. Lower-scoring town and city medians include Wasco at 20.2, Bakersfield at 21.5, and Delano at 24.5.\n\nHigher-scoring medians show up in mountain and foothill communities, including Tehachapi at 68.4, Weldon at 75.4, and Bodfish at 72.8.\n\nSome communities sit in the middle of the county pattern, such as Taft at 39.6, Ridgecrest at 43.2, and California City at 50.2.\n\nEach bar is what one part of the score covers across Kern 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.\n\nTerrain\n\n20–65 highest near Lebec\n\nVegetation & fuels\n\n20–80 highest near Boron\n\nHazard zone\n\n10–93.7 highest near Rosamond\n\nFire history\n\n5–95 highest near Lebec\n\nFire weather\n\n55.7–82.4 highest near Boron\n\nOverall score\n\n17.7–82.2 highest near Tehachapi\n\nThe 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.\n\nShow every number behind these bars\n\nLayer\n\nMin\n\nMedian\n\nMax\n\nLowest place\n\nHighest place\n\nPoints\n\nTerrain\n\n20\n\n65\n\n65\n\nnear Maricopa\n\nnear Lebec\n\n178\n\nVegetation & fuels\n\n20\n\n65.2\n\n80\n\nBakersfield\n\nnear Boron\n\n179\n\nHazard zone\n\n10\n\n40\n\n93.7\n\nnear Rosamond\n\nRosamond\n\n179\n\nFire history\n\n5\n\n40\n\n95\n\nnear Rosamond\n\nLebec\n\n179\n\nFire weather\n\n55.7\n\n65.2\n\n82.4\n\nunincorporated Kern County\n\nBoron\n\n179\n\nComposite\n\n17.7\n\n55.2\n\n82.2\n\nWasco\n\nnear Tehachapi\n\n179\n\nIndependently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at **0.88%** (90th percentile cell: **2.76%**), with a mean conditional flame length of **5.2 ft**. **88%** of the 32,230 grid cells inside the county carry burnable fuel at all.\n\nSource: USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities v2.0 (ImageServer, county extent).\n\nCAL FIRE has no mapped Fire Hazard Severity Zone at **40** of the 179 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At **38** of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 2 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.\n\n179 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.\n\nFor a property\n\n## What a county range means for _one address_\n\nFor individual properties, countywide patterns can help with context but do not replace the exact location score. Across scored points, High is the most common tier with 96 points, compared with 50 in Moderate and 16 in Very High.\n\nHazard-zone scores show sharp local swings, from 10.0 near Rosamond up to 93.7 in Rosamond, with a midpoint of 40.0.\n\nFire-history scoring also varies a lot by location: 5.0 near Rosamond versus 95.0 in Lebec, with a midpoint of 40.0.\n\nThat means nearby addresses can differ meaningfully. Rosamond’s town median is 63.1, while nearby points include some of the county’s lowest hazard-zone and fire-history values.\n\nAcross 179 sampled points in Kern County, the score runs from 17.7 to 82.2 — 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.\n\nFind out where your Kern County parcel sits\n\nSlope, the fuel touching the structure, the road out, the fire history within a mile — measured at your address, not averaged across the county.\n\nFree to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan\n\nCoverage\n\n## ZIP codes we cover in Kern County\n\nEvery one of the 57 ZIP areas that touch Kern 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.\n\n**Very High** 2 ZIPs\n\n-   [93226 Wofford Heights78](/wildfire-risk/zip/93226/)\n-   [93283 Weldon76](/wildfire-risk/zip/93283/)\n\n**High** 23 ZIPs\n\n-   [93238 Kernville75](/wildfire-risk/zip/93238/)\n-   [93518 Bodfish75](/wildfire-risk/zip/93518/)\n-   [93252 Maricopa72](/wildfire-risk/zip/93252/)\n-   [93205 Bodfish71](/wildfire-risk/zip/93205/)\n-   [93243 Lebec69](/wildfire-risk/zip/93243/)\n-   [93561 Golden Hills67](/wildfire-risk/zip/93561/)\n-   [93285 Wofford Heights66](/wildfire-risk/zip/93285/)\n-   [93240 Lake Isabella66](/wildfire-risk/zip/93240/)\n-   [93255 Onyx66](/wildfire-risk/zip/93255/)\n-   [93524 Boron63](/wildfire-risk/zip/93524/)\n-   [93527 Inyokern63](/wildfire-risk/zip/93527/)\n-   [93519 California City62](/wildfire-risk/zip/93519/)\n-   [93536 Rosamond62](/wildfire-risk/zip/93536/)\n-   [93501 Mojave61](/wildfire-risk/zip/93501/)\n-   [93225 Lebec60](/wildfire-risk/zip/93225/)\n-   [93287 McFarland59](/wildfire-risk/zip/93287/)\n-   [93251 Buttonwillow59](/wildfire-risk/zip/93251/)\n-   [93306 Bakersfield58](/wildfire-risk/zip/93306/)\n-   [93308 Bakersfield57](/wildfire-risk/zip/93308/)\n-   [93523 California City56](/wildfire-risk/zip/93523/)\n-   [93222 Maricopa54](/wildfire-risk/zip/93222/)\n-   [93554 Ridgecrest51](/wildfire-risk/zip/93554/)\n-   [93555 Ridgecrest50](/wildfire-risk/zip/93555/)\n\n**Moderate** 13 ZIPs\n\n-   [93505 California City49](/wildfire-risk/zip/93505/)\n-   [93203 Arvin43](/wildfire-risk/zip/93203/)\n-   [93268 Taft42](/wildfire-risk/zip/93268/)\n-   [93560 Rosamond40](/wildfire-risk/zip/93560/)\n-   [93249 Lost Hills38](/wildfire-risk/zip/93249/)\n-   [93516 Boron33](/wildfire-risk/zip/93516/)\n-   [93250 McFarland31](/wildfire-risk/zip/93250/)\n-   [93215 Delano30](/wildfire-risk/zip/93215/)\n-   [93314 Shafter30](/wildfire-risk/zip/93314/)\n-   [93263 Shafter28](/wildfire-risk/zip/93263/)\n-   [93241 Lamont28](/wildfire-risk/zip/93241/)\n-   [93307 Weedpatch27](/wildfire-risk/zip/93307/)\n-   [93206 Buttonwillow25](/wildfire-risk/zip/93206/)\n\n**Low** 4 ZIPs\n\n-   [93280 Wasco24](/wildfire-risk/zip/93280/)\n-   [93311 Maricopa24](/wildfire-risk/zip/93311/)\n-   [93301 Bakersfield22](/wildfire-risk/zip/93301/)\n-   [93304 Bakersfield22](/wildfire-risk/zip/93304/)\n\n**No sampled point inside** 15 ZIPs\n\n[93201 Delano](/wildfire-risk/zip/93201/) · [93204](/wildfire-risk/zip/93204/) · [93219 Delano](/wildfire-risk/zip/93219/) · [93220 Lamont](/wildfire-risk/zip/93220/) · [93224 Taft](/wildfire-risk/zip/93224/) · [93276 Buttonwillow](/wildfire-risk/zip/93276/) · [93305 Bakersfield](/wildfire-risk/zip/93305/) · [93309 Bakersfield](/wildfire-risk/zip/93309/) · [93312 Bakersfield](/wildfire-risk/zip/93312/) · [93313 Weedpatch](/wildfire-risk/zip/93313/) · [93461](/wildfire-risk/zip/93461/) · [93528 Ridgecrest](/wildfire-risk/zip/93528/) · [93531 Golden Hills](/wildfire-risk/zip/93531/) · [93558 Ridgecrest](/wildfire-risk/zip/93558/) · [93581 Golden Hills](/wildfire-risk/zip/93581/)\n\nGrouped from 42 of 57 ZIP areas — the rest had no sample point fall inside them. The community shown is the nearest mapped place to the ZIP's centre.\n\nZIP areas are Census 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas intersecting the county boundary.\n\nWhere to go next\n\n## Kern County wildfire risk _in context_\n\n[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 Kern County address PDF + score + mitigation plan](/#cta)\n\nFAQ\n\n## Frequently asked questions about _Kern County wildfire risk_\n\nWhat is the biggest fire listed for Kern County?\n\nThe biggest fire listed is Borel (2024), at 59,289 acres.\n\nWhat is the most recent large fire?\n\nThe most recent large fire is Lost (2026).\n\nHow much of Kern County has burned since 1984?\n\nA total of 832,522 acres has burned since 1984, which is 16% of the county.\n\nDoes FEMA rate specific towns inside Kern County?\n\nNo. FEMA’s National Risk Index ratings here are county-level ratings for Kern County as a whole, such as Relatively High for wildfire risk.\n\nIs burn probability the same thing as fire weather?\n\nNo. Burn probability comes from a wildfire model. Fire weather is a separate measure, and both are shown separately on this page.\n\nThis page is generated from a Kern County data pack assembled on 2026-08-16 (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: landfire per adapter · nifc\\_history All Years View · wfigs current · wrc v2.0 (2024) · fema\\_nri 1.20.0 (Dec 2025) · zcta Census 2020.\n\n## What does _your parcel_ look like, layer by layer?\n\nA 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.\n\n[Start with your address →](/#cta)\n\n[![PRR](/images/prr.png)](/ficha-de-website-voucher-satelife.pdf)\n\n© 2024–2026 Satelife, Lda. All rights reserved.\n\nSatelife reports are for informational purposes only and do not constitute insurance, financial, or legal advice."
}