San Luis Obispo 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 San Luis Obispo County scores High or worse
We scored 172 points across San Luis Obispo County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 12% 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.
12%
59%
19%
Very High12% · 20 of 172 pointsHigh59% · 102 of 172 pointsModerate19% · 33 of 172 pointsLow10% · 17 of 172 points
Safest end we measured8.8near Oceano · Low
Middle of the county61.4High — half of San Luis Obispo County is above this
Most exposed end we measured85.1near Nipomo · Very High
And the federal models agree it is a fire county
Relatively HighFEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 98.3 / 100
$17.4M / yrFEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively High
1.66%USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 3.91%
5.71 ftUSFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 91% of the county carries burnable fuel
FEMA NRI also rates San Luis Obispo County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively Low · community resilience Very High · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0081.
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 San Luis Obispo 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 San Luis Obispo County
Most scored locations land in the High tier (102 points), with fewer in Low (17 points).
Countywide context from FEMA’s National Risk Index is “Relatively High” for wildfire risk and “Relatively High” for expected annual loss.
Fire record
Where the fires actually were
Since 1984, 714,813 acres have burned in San Luis Obispo County. That equals 31% of the county.
The largest fire listed here is Gifford (2025), at 131,614 acres. The most recent large fire is Hwy 46 E On Ramp / Hwy 41 N Off Ramp (2026).
This county record includes 396 fire perimeters since 1984. Structure-loss detail is not provided for every fire; Camp (2018) appears without that detail.
Madre Fire, 2025 — San Luis Obispo County.
Photo: U.S. Forest Service in conjunction with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office · Public domain
396mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
714,813acres inside those perimeters since 1984
31.0%of the county's area, as a share of 9,318.4 km²
Hwy 46 E On Ramp / Hwy 41 N Off Ramp 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
Gifford Fire2025131,614 acres
Madre Fire202580,779 acres
Highway 58 Fire1996106,970 acres
Chimney Fire201646,234 acres
Las Pilitas Fire198584,271 acres
Logan Fire199749,490 acres
Weferling Fire196051,451 acres
Hwy 41 Fire199450,729 acres
Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Gifford 2025.
Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.
Communities
Where in the county you are matters most
Among named communities, higher typical scores appear around San Miguel (73.9) and Heritage Ranch (71.0). Paso Robles is also elevated at 64.8.
Atascadero (63.4), Shandon (62.2), and Los Osos (62.0) also sit on the higher side of the county pattern.
Lower typical scores appear in Morro Bay (13.3), Baywood Park (13.4), and Grover Beach (16.7).
Cuesta-by-the-Sea (13.4), Oceano (14.4), and Shell Beach (16.7) are in that same lower range.
San Miguelvillage · 3,172 people
73.9 High
Heritage Ranchvillage
71 High
Paso Roblestown · 29,793 people
64.8 High
Atascaderotown · 30,330 people
63.4 High
Shandonvillage · 1,168 people
62.2 High
Los Ososvillage
62 High
Crestonvillage
58.3 High
San Luis Obispocity · 47,339 people
55.9 High
San Simeonvillage
55.6 High
Arroyo Grandetown · 18,441 people
51.5 High
12 more communities in San Luis Obispo County
Templetontown
51 High
Nipomovillage
51 High
Cayucosvillage
47.8 Moderate
Cambriatown · 6,032 people
40.7 Moderate
Pismo Beachvillage · 8,072 people
36.7 Moderate
Avila Beachvillage · 1,697 people
33.4 Moderate
Grover Beachtown · 12,701 people
16.7 Low
Shell Beachvillage
16.7 Low
Oceanovillage · 7,183 people
14.4 Low
Baywood Parkvillage
13.4 Low
Cuesta-by-the-Seavillage
13.4 Low
Morro Baytown · 10,135 people
13.3 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 scores run from 20.0 near Nipomo to 65.0 in unincorporated San Luis Obispo County, with a middle value of 40.0.
Vegetation and fuels are also spread out: 5.0 near Oceano up to 80.0 near Nipomo, and a middle value of 65.0.
Hazard-zone scores range from 10.0 near Oceano to 96.0 near Nipomo. That wide gap contributes to block-by-block differences in wildfire risk.
Fire weather was not measured for this county. Instead, the measured fire-history scores run from 5.0 near Oceano to 95.0 in unincorporated San Luis Obispo County.
40median terrain score (max 65 near unincorporated San Luis Obispo County)
65median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Nipomo)
Fire weather
Fire weather across San Luis Obispo County
Fire weather was not measured at the sampled points in San Luis Obispo County. The other four
indicators on this page were, and the bars below show what they found.
What drives it
Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't
Wildfire risk varies sharply by location, from 8.8 near Oceano to 85.1 near Nipomo.
Very High risk is present in the county (20 points), but High is much more common (102 points).
Moderate (33 points) and Low (17 points) are also present, mostly in pockets rather than dominating the county.
Each bar is what one part of the score covers across San Luis Obispo 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 unincorporated San Luis Obispo County
Vegetation & fuels
5–80highest near Nipomo
Hazard zone
10–96highest near Nipomo
Fire history
5–95highest near unincorporated San Luis Obispo County
Overall score
8.8–85.1highest near Nipomo
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
40
65
near Nipomo
unincorporated San Luis Obispo County
172
Vegetation & fuels
5
65
80
near Oceano
near Nipomo
172
Hazard zone
10
70
96
near Oceano
near Nipomo
172
Fire history
5
50
95
near Oceano
unincorporated San Luis Obispo County
172
Composite
8.8
61.4
85.1
near Oceano
near Nipomo
172
Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 1.66% (90th percentile cell: 3.91%), with a mean conditional flame length of 5.71 ft. 91% of the 21,054 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 54 of the 172 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 47 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 7 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.
172 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
In the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities model, mean annual burn probability for the county is 1.66%, and the 90th-percentile cell is 3.91%.
The same model indicates 91.4% of the county can burn, and mean conditional flame length is 5.71 feet.
FEMA’s National Risk Index rates the county “Relatively High” for wildfire risk and “Relatively High” for all-hazards risk, while social vulnerability is “Relatively Low” and community resilience is “Very High”.
Across 172 sampled points in San Luis Obispo County, the score runs from
8.8 to 85.1 — 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 San Luis Obispo 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 San Luis Obispo County
Every one of the 32 ZIP areas that touch San Luis Obispo 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 San Luis Obispo County wildfire risk
Has much of San Luis Obispo County burned since the 1980s?
Yes. Since 1984, 714,813 acres have burned, which is 31% of the county.
What are the key fires to know from this county summary?
The largest fire listed is Gifford (2025) at 131,614 acres. The most recent large fire is Hwy 46 E On Ramp / Hwy 41 N Off Ramp (2026).
Where are overall scores highest and lowest?
The highest score shown is 85.1 near Nipomo, and the lowest is 8.8 near Oceano.
Are lower scores limited to just one coastal town?
No. Morro Bay (13.3), Baywood Park (13.4), and Oceano (14.4) are all on the lower end in this county view.
Is fire weather included in these county measurements?
No. Fire weather was not measured for this county in this summary.
This page is generated from a San Luis Obispo 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.
