Mendocino County, California

Wildfire risk in Mendocino County: where it is highest, and why

Wildfire risk in Mendocino County varies a lot from place to place. In the scored locations, the overall score runs from 14.8 near Piercy to 80.5 in Talmage, with a middle value of 56.1.

Score my Mendocino County address → How risky is this county? ↓

Before 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity

Mendocino 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 Mendocino County scores High or worse

We scored 174 points across Mendocino County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 5% of them come out Very High, while 10% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

59%

26%

Very High 5% · 8 of 174 points High 59% · 103 of 174 points Moderate 26% · 46 of 174 points Low 10% · 17 of 174 points

Safest end we measured 14.8 near Piercy · Low

Middle of the county 56.1 High — half of Mendocino County is above this

Most exposed end we measured 80.5 near Talmage · Very High

And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively High FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 97.8 / 100

$8.2M / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively High

0.52% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 1.43%

5.31 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 91% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates Mendocino County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively High · community resilience Relatively Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0050.

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 Mendocino 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 Mendocino County

Most scored locations fall in the High tier, with 103 points in High versus 46 in Moderate. The county also includes both lower-risk and very high-risk pockets.

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Mendocino County’s wildfire risk as Relatively High, and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively High. FEMA also rates community resilience in the county as Relatively Low.

Fire record

Where the fires actually were

Since 1984, 389,560 acres have burned in Mendocino County fire perimeters, and 15.8% of the county has burned in that period. The county record here includes 216 fire perimeters since 1984.

The largest fire identified for the county is Mendenhall (1987), at 65,468 acres. The most recent large fire identified for the county is Hull (2020).

Other major fires tied to the county include Doe (2020) at 589,835 acres and Ranch (2018) at 410,202 acres; both are marked as partly in the county.

Doe Fire (2020) in Mendocino County, California - View of the August 2020 Doe Fire (later merged into the August Complex fires), looking south from Forest Highway 7 of the U.S. Men — **Doe Fire, 2020** — Mendocino County. Photo: U.S. Forest Service · Public domain

Ranch Fire (2018) in Mendocino County, California - #RanchFire #MendocinoComplex [update] off Highway 20 near Potter Valley, northeast of Ukiah (Mendocino County) is now 51,539 acres — **Ranch Fire, 2018** — Mendocino County. Photo: CAL FIRE · Public domain

216 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984

389,560 acres inside those perimeters since 1984

15.8% of the county's area, as a share of 9,986.2 km²

Hull 2020 most recent large fire on record

Named fires on record

Doe Fire2020589,835 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Ranch Fire2018410,202 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Mendocino Lake Complex Fire201736,525 acres
Redwood Fire201736,523 acres
North Pass Fire201241,813 acres
Mendenhall Fire198765,468 acres
Comptche Fire193133,102 acres
Will Creek Fire194530,725 acres

Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Mendenhall 1987. 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, some of the higher overall scores are in Potter Valley (72.0), Covelo (69.0), and Ukiah (62.4).

Some lower scores appear along the coast, including Caspar (26.8), Mendocino (28.3), and Fort Bragg (29.8).

Several communities sit in the middle range, such as Willits (44.4), Boonville (49.7), and Gualala (52.6).

Potter Valley village

72 High

Covelo village

69 High

Redwood Valley village · 1,722 people

67.7 High

Hopland village

67.7 High

Calpella village

67.3 High

Laytonville village

64.4 High

Ukiah town · 16,036 people

62.4 High

Talmage village · 1,130 people

60.2 High

Philo village · 319 people

59.8 High

Leggett village · 122 people

56.4 High

14 more communities in Mendocino County

Brooktrails village

54.7 High

Gualala village

52.6 High

Elk village

51.3 High

Piercy village

50.6 High

Boonville village · 1,018 people

49.7 Moderate

Willits town · 5,055 people

44.4 Moderate

Comptche village

43.8 Moderate

Irish Beach village

41.7 Moderate

Westport village

37.3 Moderate

Albion village

34.7 Moderate

Point Arena village · 460 people

34 Moderate

Fort Bragg town · 7,273 people

29.8 Moderate

Mendocino village · 894 people

28.3 Moderate

Caspar village

26.8 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 contributes differently across the county. Terrain scores range from 5.0 in Albion to 65.0 near Hopland, with a middle value of 40.0.

Vegetation and fuels are generally elevated in many scored places: that layer has a middle value of 68.8, with a high of 80.0 near Covelo and a low of 5.0 in Gualala.

Two other non-weather factors also vary sharply. Hazard-zone scores run up to 92.7 in Talmage, while fire-history scores reach 95.0 in Hopland.

40 median terrain score (max 65 near Hopland)

68.8 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Covelo)

LANDFIRE existing vegetation type map of Mendocino County, California, with the county boundary outlined — LANDFIRE existing vegetation type across Mendocino County — the same fuel data that feeds the vegetation layer of a Satelife property report.

Fire weather

Fire weather across Mendocino County

Fire-weather scores were measured across the county’s scored locations and vary from 50.7 in Westport to 79.2 in Gualala, with a middle value of 58.2.

A separate federal burn-probability model is also shown for county context, but it is not a fire-weather measure. In that model, mean annual burn probability is 0.52 percent, and the 90th-percentile cell is 1.43 percent.

50.7 lowest fire-weather score — near Westport

79.2 highest fire-weather score — near Gualala

What drives it

Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't

Scores are not uniform across Mendocino County. For example, Fort Bragg is at 29.8 while Covelo is at 69.0, showing a wide gap between communities.

That same spread shows up in nearby inland communities: Potter Valley is 72.0 and Redwood Valley is 67.7, while Mendocino is 28.3.

In practice, countywide patterns help with context, but risk still changes meaningfully between specific towns and nearby areas.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Mendocino 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 Hopland

Vegetation & fuels

5–80 highest near Covelo

Hazard zone

10–92.7 highest near Talmage

Fire history

5–95 highest near Hopland

Fire weather

50.7–79.2 highest near Gualala

Overall score

14.8–80.5 highest near Talmage

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	40	65	Albion	near Hopland	174
Vegetation & fuels	5	68.8	80	Gualala	near Covelo	174
Hazard zone	10	70	92.7	Gualala	Talmage	174
Fire history	5	20	95	Gualala	Hopland	174
Fire weather	50.7	58.2	79.2	Westport	Gualala	174
Composite	14.8	56.1	80.5	near Piercy	Talmage	174

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.52% (90th percentile cell: 1.43%), with a mean conditional flame length of 5.31 ft. 91% of the 25,652 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 43 of the 174 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 28 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 15 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.

174 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

This county view does not measure house-by-house features such as roof type, vents, siding, or defensible space.

What it does show is place-level wildfire risk around properties. For example, hazard-zone values range from 10.0 in Gualala to 92.7 in Talmage, and fire-history values range from 5.0 in Gualala to 95.0 in Hopland.

For countywide context on potential impacts, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Mendocino County as Relatively High for wildfire expected annual loss.

Across 174 sampled points in Mendocino County, the score runs from 14.8 to 80.5 — 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 Mendocino 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 Mendocino County

Every one of the 38 ZIP areas that touch Mendocino 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 17 ZIPs

Moderate 9 ZIPs

No sampled point inside 12 ZIPs

95412 Gualala · 95417 Westport · 95441 Hopland · 95451 Hopland · 95453 Hopland · 95456 Albion · 95463 Comptche · 95485 Potter Valley · 95493 Potter Valley · 95497 Gualala · 95595 Covelo · 95939

Grouped from 26 of 38 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

Mendocino County wildfire risk in context

California wildfire risk The statewide picture and every county page we publish Wildfire risk by state Every state and county we cover How Satelife calculates wildfire risk Data sources, layers, score composition, honest limits Create a wildfire evacuation plan Zones, egress routes, refuge areas Run a report for a Mendocino County address PDF + score + mitigation plan

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Mendocino County wildfire risk

What does the wildfire score represent here?

It represents overall wildfire risk for places in Mendocino County on a 0–100 scale, where higher scores mean more exposure.

Has a large share of Mendocino County burned before?

Yes. Since 1984, 15.8% of the county has burned within mapped fire perimeters.

Which fire is treated as the largest and which is the most recent large fire?

The largest fire identified for the county is Mendenhall (1987). The most recent large fire identified for the county is Hull (2020).

Is fire weather included?

Yes. Fire-weather scores are measured for the county’s scored locations, and they range from 50.7 in Westport to 79.2 in Gualala.

Does this page rate my specific home’s construction and defensible space?

No. It does not measure home-specific features like roof type or defensible space; it reports wildfire risk for the surrounding place.