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Sacramento County, California

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

Wildfire risk in Sacramento County spans a wide range across the places we scored. The middle score is 22.2, with lower-scoring places down at 13.4 and higher-scoring places up to 65.6.

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Sacramento 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 Sacramento County scores Low or worse

We scored 160 points across Sacramento 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 High, while 58% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

High 9% · 15 of 160 points Moderate 33% · 52 of 160 points Low 58% · 93 of 160 points
Safest end we measured 13.4 near Elk Grove · Low
Middle of the county 22.2 Low — half of Sacramento County is above this
Most exposed end we measured 65.6 near Rancho Murieta · High

And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively Moderate FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 95.9 / 100
$4.8M / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Moderate
0.26% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 0.55%
2.28 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 68% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates Sacramento County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively Low · community resilience Relatively Moderate · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0034.

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 Sacramento 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 Sacramento County

Most scored locations fall in the Low tier, with 93 points, followed by 52 in Moderate. That pattern means lower-to-moderate risk is more common than High in the county’s scored locations.

For county-wide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Sacramento County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate, and its all-hazards risk as Relatively High.

Fire record

Where the fires actually were

Since 1984, 11,278 acres have burned in Sacramento County fire perimeters, and that is 1.8% of the county. The county has had 41 recorded fire perimeters in that period.

Latrobe (2017) is listed as both the largest fire and the most recent large fire in the county summary here, at 1,268 acres.

Other named fires in the records include Meiss (1981) at 14,126 acres and Scott (1996) at 8,828 acres, with Scott marked as partly in the county.

41 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
11,278 acres inside those perimeters since 1984
1.8% of the county's area, as a share of 2,560.3 km²
Latrobe 2017 most recent large fire on record
Named fires on record
  • Meiss Fire198114,126 acres
  • Scott Fire19968,828 acres in totalcrossed into the county
  • Latrobe Fire20171,268 acres
  • Clay Fire2020726 acres
  • Meiss Fire2020506 acres
  • Smud #1 Fire19921,179 acres
  • Scott Fire2004609 acres
  • Chance Ranch Vmp Fire2006560 acres

Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Latrobe 2017. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.

Communities

Where in the county you are matters most

Among the communities shown, Rancho Murieta stands out with a median wildfire risk score of 50.9. Sacramento and Citrus Heights are both at 13.4.

Several other communities sit in the lower-to-mid range: Elk Grove is 20.8, Folsom is 21.1, and Rancho Cordova is 25.1. That spread shows why neighborhood-level location inside the county matters for risk context.

Rancho Murieta village
50.9 High
Rancho Cordova town · 59,921 people
25.1 Moderate
Galt town · 23,396 people
21.7 Low
Folsom city · 66,123 people
21.1 Low
Elk Grove city · 166,913 people
20.8 Low
Walnut Grove village
19.9 Low
Rio Linda village
18.9 Low
Isleton village · 803 people
16.4 Low
Sacramento city · 490,712 people
13.4 Low
Citrus Heights town · 88,890 people
13.4 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-related scores run from 5.0 near Isleton to 40.0 in Rancho Murieta, with a middle value of 20.0. In plain terms, slope and topography contribute more in some inland foothill-edge areas than in flatter Delta-side locations.

Vegetation and fuels range from 20.0 in Elk Grove to 73.1 in Rancho Murieta, with a middle value of 43.8. This is associated with stronger differences in burnable cover between neighborhoods and outskirts.

Hazard-zone scores are often at 10.0, but reach 70.0 near Rancho Murieta. Fire-history scores are commonly 5.0, with a high of 95.0 near Isleton.

20 median terrain score (max 40 near Rancho Murieta)
43.8 median vegetation & fuels score (max 73.1 near Rancho Murieta)
Fire weather

Fire weather across Sacramento County

Fire weather could not be measured across the county. It was measured at only 7 of 160 scored points, at Isleton, where the score is 69.0.

Separately from weather, the modeled burn-probability product shows a mean annual burn probability of 0.26 and a 90th-percentile cell value of 0.55.

Fire weather was measured at 7 of the 160 sampled points (near Isleton, 69) — too few to publish as a county range, so no high/low is shown here.

What drives it

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

Risk is not uniform across Sacramento County. The highest scored location is in Rancho Murieta at 65.6, while the lowest scored location is in Elk Grove at 13.4.

By tier counts, Low (93 points) and Moderate (52 points) are the most common. High appears at 15 points, and no scored points are in Very High.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Sacramento 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
5–40 highest near Rancho Murieta
Vegetation & fuels
20–73.1 highest near Rancho Murieta
Hazard zone
10–70 highest near Rancho Murieta
Fire history
5–95 highest near Isleton
Fire weather
69 at one point highest near Isleton
Overall score
13.4–65.6 highest near Rancho Murieta

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 20 40 near Isleton Rancho Murieta 160
Vegetation & fuels 20 43.8 73.1 Elk Grove Rancho Murieta 160
Hazard zone 10 10 70 near Isleton near Rancho Murieta 160
Fire history 5 5 95 near Isleton near Isleton 160
Fire weather* 69 Isleton 7
Composite 13.4 22.2 65.6 Elk Grove Rancho Murieta 160

*Fire weather returned a reading at only 7 of the 160 sampled points. The one value measured is shown under Max with the place beside it; there is no county range to report, so the other columns are left blank.

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.26% (90th percentile cell: 0.55%), with a mean conditional flame length of 2.28 ft. 68% of the 17,717 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 2 of the 160 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 2 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead.

160 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 90%. Scores are 0–100 and comparable within the county, not across states.

For a property

What a county range means for one address

Property-specific home features were not measured at all in this county view.

What this page does provide is location-based wildfire risk around a home: nearby place scores, local terrain and fuels context, and community-level medians. For example, the typical score shown for Rancho Murieta is 50.9 versus 13.4 in Sacramento.

Across 160 sampled points in Sacramento County, the score runs from 13.4 to 65.6 — 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 Sacramento 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 Sacramento County

Every one of the 72 ZIP areas that touch Sacramento 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.

Grouped from 42 of 72 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

Sacramento County wildfire risk in context

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Sacramento County wildfire risk

Is wildfire risk the same everywhere in Sacramento County?

No. Scores vary a lot by location, from 13.4 in lower-risk areas up to 65.6 in higher-risk areas such as Rancho Murieta.

What are the main fire history takeaways for the county?

Since 1984, 11,278 acres have burned within recorded perimeters, which is 1.8% of the county, across 41 perimeters.

What was the most recent large fire?

Latrobe (2017) is the most recent large fire listed in the county summary here, and it is also listed as the largest.

Do you have county-wide fire weather scores?

No. Fire weather was only measured at a handful of points, specifically at Isleton (69.0), so it could not be measured across the county.

How does FEMA rate wildfire risk for Sacramento County?

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates the county’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate.

This page is generated from a Sacramento County data pack assembled on 2026-08-18 (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.

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