--- 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/" --- [Home](/)›[Wildfire Risk](/wildfire-risk/)›[California](/wildfire-risk/california/)›Kern County Kern County, California # Wildfire risk in Kern County: _where it is highest_, and why 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. [Score my Kern County address →](#score-my-address) [How risky is this county? ↓](#risk-at-a-glance) Before 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity Kern 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 Kern County scores _High_ or worse We 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. 54% 28% **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 Safest end we measured 17.7 near Wasco · Low Middle of the county 55.2 High — half of Kern County is above this Most exposed end we measured 82.2 near Tehachapi · Very High ### And the federal models agree it is a fire county Relatively High FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 99.7 / 100 $38.5M / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively High 0.88% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 2.76% 5.2 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 88% of the county carries burnable fuel FEMA NRI also rates Kern County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively High · community resilience Very Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0055. 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 Kern 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 _Kern County_ Most scored locations fall in the High tier. The count there is 96 points, compared with 50 in Moderate and 16 in Very High. FEMA’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. In 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. Fire record ## Where the fires _actually were_ The largest fire listed here is the Borel fire (2024), at 59,289 acres. The most recent large fire is the Lost fire (2026). Since 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. Another major recent fire was Erskine (2016), which burned 48,008 acres in the county. ![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) **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) ![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) **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) 856 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984 832,522 acres inside those perimeters since 1984 16.0% of the county's area, as a share of 21,034 km² Lost 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 - **Borel Fire**202459,289 acres - **Erskine Fire**201648,008 acres - **French Fire**202126,535 acres - **Piute Fire**200837,346 acres - **Comanche Fire**201125,939 acres - **Breckenridge Complex Fire**201125,223 acres - **Rankin Ranch Fire**197035,976 acres - **Cedar Fire**201629,101 acres in totalcrossed into the county Perimeter 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. Communities ## Where in the county you are _matters most_ Community medians show clear local differences. Bakersfield is 21.5, Delano is 24.5, and Wasco is 20.2. At the higher end, Rosamond is 63.1, Tehachapi is 68.4, and Golden Hills is 64.8. Other communities fall between those ends, including Arvin at 36.5, Mojave at 50.2, and Lake Isabella at 54.8. Weldon village · 2,303 people 75.4 _Very High_ Bodfish village · 2,008 people 72.8 _High_ Onyx village · 457 people 72.4 _High_ Kernville village · 1,549 people 71.4 _High_ Tehachapi town · 14,414 people 68.4 _High_ Wofford Heights village · 2,213 people 66.2 _High_ Mountain Mesa village · 823 people 65.9 _High_ Lebec village 65.6 _High_ Golden Hills village · 8,656 people 64.8 _High_ Rosamond town · 18,150 people 63.1 _High_ 19 more communities in Kern County Inyokern village · 988 people 61.4 _High_ Maricopa village · 1,154 people 57.3 _High_ Lake Isabella town · 3,573 people 54.8 _High_ California City town · 12,659 people 50.2 _High_ Mojave town · 4,238 people 50.2 _High_ China Lake Acres village · 1,757 people 50.2 _High_ Ridgecrest city · 28,333 people 43.2 _Moderate_ Lost Hills village · 2,370 people 42.6 _Moderate_ Taft village · 9,150 people 39.6 _Moderate_ Arvin town · 19,304 people 36.5 _Moderate_ Boron village 33 _Moderate_ McFarland town · 12,890 people 30.6 _Moderate_ Shafter town · 20,070 people 28.1 _Moderate_ Lamont village · 15,120 people 27.5 _Moderate_ Weedpatch village · 2,658 people 26.9 _Moderate_ Buttonwillow village · 1,508 people 26.7 _Moderate_ Delano city · 53,819 people 24.5 _Low_ Bakersfield city · 422,165 people 21.5 _Low_ Wasco town · 25,545 people 20.2 _Low_ 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 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. Vegetation 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. Taken 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. 65 median terrain score (max 65 near Lebec) 65.2 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Boron) ![LANDFIRE existing vegetation type map of Kern County, California, with the county boundary outlined](/images/wildfire-risk/kern-county/generated/kern-county-fuels.webp) LANDFIRE existing vegetation type across Kern County — the same fuel data that feeds the vegetation layer of a Satelife property report. Fire weather ## Fire weather across _Kern County_ Fire 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. Fire 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. 55.7 lowest fire-weather score — near unincorporated Kern County 82.4 highest fire-weather score — near Boron What drives it ## Which part of the risk _moves_, and which doesn't Risk 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. Higher-scoring medians show up in mountain and foothill communities, including Tehachapi at 68.4, Weldon at 75.4, and Bodfish at 72.8. Some 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. Each 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. Terrain 20–65 highest near Lebec Vegetation & fuels 20–80 highest near Boron Hazard zone 10–93.7 highest near Rosamond Fire history 5–95 highest near Lebec Fire weather 55.7–82.4 highest near Boron Overall score 17.7–82.2 highest near Tehachapi 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 20 65 65 near Maricopa near Lebec 178 Vegetation & fuels 20 65.2 80 Bakersfield near Boron 179 Hazard zone 10 40 93.7 near Rosamond Rosamond 179 Fire history 5 40 95 near Rosamond Lebec 179 Fire weather 55.7 65.2 82.4 unincorporated Kern County Boron 179 Composite 17.7 55.2 82.2 Wasco near Tehachapi 179 Independently 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. Source: USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities v2.0 (ImageServer, county extent). CAL 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. 179 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_ For 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. Hazard-zone scores show sharp local swings, from 10.0 near Rosamond up to 93.7 in Rosamond, with a midpoint of 40.0. Fire-history scoring also varies a lot by location: 5.0 near Rosamond versus 95.0 in Lebec, with a midpoint of 40.0. That 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. Across 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. Find out where your Kern 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 Kern County Every 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. **Very High** 2 ZIPs - [93226 Wofford Heights78](/wildfire-risk/zip/93226/) - [93283 Weldon76](/wildfire-risk/zip/93283/) **High** 23 ZIPs - [93238 Kernville75](/wildfire-risk/zip/93238/) - [93518 Bodfish75](/wildfire-risk/zip/93518/) - [93252 Maricopa72](/wildfire-risk/zip/93252/) - [93205 Bodfish71](/wildfire-risk/zip/93205/) - [93243 Lebec69](/wildfire-risk/zip/93243/) - [93561 Golden Hills67](/wildfire-risk/zip/93561/) - [93285 Wofford Heights66](/wildfire-risk/zip/93285/) - [93240 Lake Isabella66](/wildfire-risk/zip/93240/) - [93255 Onyx66](/wildfire-risk/zip/93255/) - [93524 Boron63](/wildfire-risk/zip/93524/) - [93527 Inyokern63](/wildfire-risk/zip/93527/) - [93519 California City62](/wildfire-risk/zip/93519/) - [93536 Rosamond62](/wildfire-risk/zip/93536/) - [93501 Mojave61](/wildfire-risk/zip/93501/) - [93225 Lebec60](/wildfire-risk/zip/93225/) - [93287 McFarland59](/wildfire-risk/zip/93287/) - [93251 Buttonwillow59](/wildfire-risk/zip/93251/) - [93306 Bakersfield58](/wildfire-risk/zip/93306/) - [93308 Bakersfield57](/wildfire-risk/zip/93308/) - [93523 California City56](/wildfire-risk/zip/93523/) - [93222 Maricopa54](/wildfire-risk/zip/93222/) - [93554 Ridgecrest51](/wildfire-risk/zip/93554/) - [93555 Ridgecrest50](/wildfire-risk/zip/93555/) **Moderate** 13 ZIPs - [93505 California City49](/wildfire-risk/zip/93505/) - [93203 Arvin43](/wildfire-risk/zip/93203/) - [93268 Taft42](/wildfire-risk/zip/93268/) - [93560 Rosamond40](/wildfire-risk/zip/93560/) - [93249 Lost Hills38](/wildfire-risk/zip/93249/) - [93516 Boron33](/wildfire-risk/zip/93516/) - [93250 McFarland31](/wildfire-risk/zip/93250/) - [93215 Delano30](/wildfire-risk/zip/93215/) - [93314 Shafter30](/wildfire-risk/zip/93314/) - [93263 Shafter28](/wildfire-risk/zip/93263/) - [93241 Lamont28](/wildfire-risk/zip/93241/) - [93307 Weedpatch27](/wildfire-risk/zip/93307/) - [93206 Buttonwillow25](/wildfire-risk/zip/93206/) **Low** 4 ZIPs - [93280 Wasco24](/wildfire-risk/zip/93280/) - [93311 Maricopa24](/wildfire-risk/zip/93311/) - [93301 Bakersfield22](/wildfire-risk/zip/93301/) - [93304 Bakersfield22](/wildfire-risk/zip/93304/) **No sampled point inside** 15 ZIPs [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/) Grouped 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. ZIP areas are Census 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas intersecting the county boundary. Where to go next ## Kern 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 Kern County address PDF + score + mitigation plan](/#cta) FAQ ## Frequently asked questions about _Kern County wildfire risk_ What is the biggest fire listed for Kern County? The biggest fire listed is Borel (2024), at 59,289 acres. What is the most recent large fire? The most recent large fire is Lost (2026). How much of Kern County has burned since 1984? A total of 832,522 acres has burned since 1984, which is 16% of the county. Does FEMA rate specific towns inside Kern County? No. FEMA’s National Risk Index ratings here are county-level ratings for Kern County as a whole, such as Relatively High for wildfire risk. Is burn probability the same thing as fire weather? No. Burn probability comes from a wildfire model. Fire weather is a separate measure, and both are shown separately on this page. This 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. ## 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.