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.
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 High9% · 16 of 179 pointsHigh54% · 96 of 179 pointsModerate28% · 50 of 179 pointsLow9% · 17 of 179 points
Safest end we measured17.7near Wasco · Low
Middle of the county55.2High — half of Kern County is above this
Most exposed end we measured82.2near Tehachapi · Very High
And the federal models agree it is a fire county
Relatively HighFEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 99.7 / 100
$38.5M / yrFEMA 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 ftUSFS 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.
856mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
832,522acres inside those perimeters since 1984
16.0%of the county's area, as a share of 21,034 km²
Lost 2026most 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 Fire202459,289 acres
Erskine Fire201648,008 acres
French Fire202126,535 acres
Piute Fire200837,346 acres
Comanche Fire201125,939 acres
Breckenridge Complex Fire201125,223 acres
Rankin Ranch Fire197035,976 acres
Cedar Fire201629,101 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.
Weldonvillage · 2,303 people
75.4 Very High
Bodfishvillage · 2,008 people
72.8 High
Onyxvillage · 457 people
72.4 High
Kernvillevillage · 1,549 people
71.4 High
Tehachapitown · 14,414 people
68.4 High
Wofford Heightsvillage · 2,213 people
66.2 High
Mountain Mesavillage · 823 people
65.9 High
Lebecvillage
65.6 High
Golden Hillsvillage · 8,656 people
64.8 High
Rosamondtown · 18,150 people
63.1 High
19 more communities in Kern County
Inyokernvillage · 988 people
61.4 High
Maricopavillage · 1,154 people
57.3 High
Lake Isabellatown · 3,573 people
54.8 High
California Citytown · 12,659 people
50.2 High
Mojavetown · 4,238 people
50.2 High
China Lake Acresvillage · 1,757 people
50.2 High
Ridgecrestcity · 28,333 people
43.2 Moderate
Lost Hillsvillage · 2,370 people
42.6 Moderate
Taftvillage · 9,150 people
39.6 Moderate
Arvintown · 19,304 people
36.5 Moderate
Boronvillage
33 Moderate
McFarlandtown · 12,890 people
30.6 Moderate
Shaftertown · 20,070 people
28.1 Moderate
Lamontvillage · 15,120 people
27.5 Moderate
Weedpatchvillage · 2,658 people
26.9 Moderate
Buttonwillowvillage · 1,508 people
26.7 Moderate
Delanocity · 53,819 people
24.5 Low
Bakersfieldcity · 422,165 people
21.5 Low
Wascotown · 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.
65median terrain score (max 65 near Lebec)
65.2median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Boron)
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.
55.7lowest fire-weather score — near unincorporated Kern County
82.4highest 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
20–65highest near Lebec
Vegetation & fuels
20–80highest near Boron
Hazard zone
10–93.7highest near Rosamond
Fire history
5–95highest near Lebec
Fire weather
55.7–82.4highest near Boron
Overall score
17.7–82.2highest 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.
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.
