Wildfire risk in Mono County: where it is highest, and why
Wildfire risk in Mono County varies a lot by location. Across the places we scored, values run from 28.0 near Lee Vining to 76.9 in Walker, with a middle value of 52.5.
Mono 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 Mono County scores High or worse
We scored 158 points across Mono 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 41% are Moderate. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.
58%
41%
Very High1% · 2 of 158 pointsHigh58% · 92 of 158 pointsModerate41% · 64 of 158 points
Safest end we measured28near Lee Vining · Moderate
Middle of the county52.5High — half of Mono County is above this
Most exposed end we measured76.9near Walker · Very High
And the federal models agree it is a fire county
Relatively ModerateFEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 91.2 / 100
$1.8M / yrFEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Moderate
0.41%USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 1.03%
6.35 ftUSFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 97% of the county carries burnable fuel
FEMA NRI also rates Mono County: all-hazards risk Relatively Low · social vulnerability Relatively Low · community resilience Relatively High · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0040.
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 Mono 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 Mono County
Most scored locations fall in the High tier. The count is 92 High, 64 Moderate, and 2 Very High, with no Low locations in the scored set.
County history also shows meaningful fire activity: 188,095 acres have burned since 1984, which is 9.4% of the county.
Fire record
Where the fires actually were
Since 1984, Mono County has had 121 recorded fire perimeters. In that period, 188,095 acres burned (9.4% of county area).
The largest fire named in the county fire record here is Cannon (2002) at 26,684 acres. The most recent large fire is Pack (2025).
Other major fires in or affecting the county include Slink (2020), listed at 26,752 acres and partly in the county, and Mountain View (2020) at 20,385 acres.
Slink Fire, 2020 — Mono County.
Photo: Intermountain Region US Forest Service · Public domain
121mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
188,095acres inside those perimeters since 1984
9.4%of the county's area, as a share of 8,063.8 km²
Pack 2025most 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
Mountain View Fire202020,385 acres
Slink Fire202026,752 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Cannon Fire200226,684 acres
Indian Fire201212,575 acres
Slinkard Fire20179,096 acres
Boot Fire20186,974 acres
Springs Fire20196,615 acres
Round Fire20156,538 acres
Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Cannon 2002.
Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.
Communities
Where in the county you are matters most
Mammoth Lakes is the largest community listed (population 8,234), and its middle wildfire-risk score is 55.1. Several smaller communities score somewhat higher, including Crowley Lake at 58.6 and Walker at 60.2.
June Lake (57.6), Benton (57.4), and Lee Vining (56.9) are in a similar range. Bridgeport is lower at 53.4.
Chalfant stands out on the lower end among listed communities at 44.0. So within one county, community-level wildfire risk can still differ noticeably.
Walkervillage · 721 people
60.2 High
Crowley Lakevillage · 980 people
58.6 High
June Lakevillage · 611 people
57.6 High
Bentonvillage · 279 people
57.4 High
Lee Viningvillage · 217 people
56.9 High
Mammoth Lakestown · 8,234 people
55.1 High
Bridgeportvillage
53.4 High
Chalfantvillage · 660 people
44 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 is a meaningful part of the county pattern. Terrain scores range from 30.0 in Crowley Lake to 65.0 in Chalfant, with a middle value of 55.0.
Vegetation and fuels are generally elevated in the scored locations. The middle score is 75.8, with the high end at 80.0 near Chalfant and a low of 5.0 in Lee Vining.
Hazard-zone scores also vary sharply by place, from 10.0 in Crowley Lake up to 90.0 in Walker. That contributes to why local wildfire risk can change quickly across the county.
55median terrain score (max 65 near Chalfant)
75.8median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Chalfant)
Fire weather
Fire weather across Mono County
Fire-weather scores were measured across the county and are fairly tight compared with other factors. They run from 54.9 in Lee Vining to 65.5 near Benton, with a middle value of 55.1.
A separate national model estimates mean annual burn probability at 0.41%, with a 90th-percentile cell value of 1.03%. This is a burn-probability measure, not a fire-weather score.
54.9lowest fire-weather score — near Lee Vining
65.5highest fire-weather score — near Benton
What drives it
Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't
Risk is not uniform from one part of Mono County to another. The highest scored location is Walker at 76.9, while the lowest is near Lee Vining at 28.0.
That spread shows up in town-level patterns too. Walker has a community middle score of 60.2, while Chalfant is lower at 44.0.
Even where countywide ratings look moderate, local differences are large enough that nearby communities can sit in different risk tiers.
Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Mono 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
30–65highest near Chalfant
Vegetation & fuels
5–80highest near Chalfant
Hazard zone
10–90highest near Walker
Fire history
5–95highest near Mammoth Lakes
Fire weather
54.9–65.5highest near Benton
Overall score
28–76.9highest near Walker
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
30
55
65
Crowley Lake
Chalfant
158
Vegetation & fuels
5
75.8
80
Lee Vining
near Chalfant
158
Hazard zone
10
46.6
90
Crowley Lake
Walker
158
Fire history
5
20
95
Crowley Lake
Mammoth Lakes
158
Fire weather
54.9
55.1
65.5
Lee Vining
near Benton
158
Composite
28
52.5
76.9
near Lee Vining
Walker
158
Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.41% (90th percentile cell: 1.03%), with a mean conditional flame length of 6.35 ft. 97% of the 14,613 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 128 of the 158 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas, and most of this county is state or federal land. At 111 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 17 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.
158 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 countywide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Mono County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate and wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively Moderate. FEMA also rates the county’s all-hazards risk as Relatively Low.
At the same time, county-level ratings do not erase local variation. In the scored locations, there are 92 High points and 2 Very High points, so property-level and neighborhood-level differences matter in Mono County.
FEMA’s National Risk Index also rates social vulnerability as Relatively Low and community resilience as Relatively High. Those are countywide ratings, not ratings for a specific town or property.
Across 158 sampled points in Mono County, the score runs from
28 to 76.9 — 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 Mono 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 Mono County
Every one of the 16 ZIP areas that touch Mono 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 Mono County wildfire risk
What is the most recent large fire for Mono County?
The most recent large fire listed for Mono County is Pack (2025).
What is the largest fire named in this county record?
Cannon (2002) is the largest named fire in the record here, at 26,684 acres.
Does wildfire risk look the same across Mono County?
No. The scored locations range from 28.0 near Lee Vining to 76.9 in Walker, so risk changes by location.
Did fire weather get measured in Mono County?
Yes. Fire-weather scores were measured in the county, ranging from 54.9 (Lee Vining) to 65.5 (near Benton).
How much of Mono County has burned since 1984?
188,095 acres have burned since 1984, equal to 9.4% of the county.
This page is generated from a Mono 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.
