{
  "title": "Wildfire Risk in Sierra County, CA 2026 | Satelife",
  "description": "Wildfire risk in Sierra County varies a lot by location. The overall scores run from 26.4 in Sierraville to 82.7 near Loyalton, with a county midpoint of 61.4.",
  "image": "https://satelife.ai/images/wildfire-risk/sierra-county/generated/sierra-county-locator.webp",
  "canonical": "https://satelife.ai/wildfire-risk/california/sierra-county/",
  "content": "[Home](/)›[Wildfire Risk](/wildfire-risk/)›[California](/wildfire-risk/california/)›Sierra County\n\nSierra County, California\n\n# Wildfire risk in Sierra County: _where it is highest_, and why\n\nWildfire risk in Sierra County varies a lot by location. The overall scores run from 26.4 in Sierraville to 82.7 near Loyalton, with a county midpoint of 61.4.\n\n[Score my Sierra County address →](#score-my-address) [How risky is this county? ↓](#risk-at-a-glance)\n\nBefore 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity\n\nSierra County — the largest fires on record, at their perimeter centres, with the county’s main communities. Select a marker for its detail.\n\nAt a glance\n\n## Half of Sierra County scores _High_ or worse\n\nWe scored 154 points across Sierra County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 6% of them come out Very High, while 10% are Moderate. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.\n\n83%\n\n10%\n\n**Very High** 6% · 10 of 154 points **High** 83% · 128 of 154 points **Moderate** 10% · 16 of 154 points\n\nSafest end we measured 26.4 near Sierraville · Moderate\n\nMiddle of the county 61.4 High — half of Sierra County is above this\n\nMost exposed end we measured 82.7 near Loyalton · Very High\n\n### And the federal models agree it is a fire county\n\nRelatively Moderate FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 95.6 / 100\n\n$3.5M / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Moderate\n\n1.48% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 2.99%\n\n11.23 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 98% of the county carries burnable fuel\n\nFEMA NRI also rates Sierra County: all-hazards risk Very Low · social vulnerability Relatively High · community resilience Relatively Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0154.\n\nSources: 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.\n\nWhat does your Sierra County address score?\n\nA county range shows the spread. Your parcel sits somewhere inside it — the report says where, and what to do about it.\n\nFree to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan\n\nLocal context\n\n## What the data says about _Sierra County_\n\nMost of the places we scored fall in the High tier. High has 128 points, compared with 16 in Moderate and 10 in Very High; none fell in Low.\n\nFEMA’s National Risk Index rates Sierra County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate, and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively Moderate. FEMA also rates the county’s all-hazards risk as Very Low, with social vulnerability Relatively High and community resilience Relatively Low.\n\nFire record\n\n## Where the fires _actually were_\n\nSince 1984, Sierra County has had 59 recorded fire perimeters, and 135,782 acres have burned. That equals 22.2% of the county.\n\nThe largest fire listed is Cottonwood (1994), at 48,111 acres.\n\nThe most recent large fire is Bear (2024), at 3,323 acres. Another fire in the list, Elephant (2026), burned 13,930 acres and was partly in Sierra County.\n\n59 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984\n\n135,782 acres inside those perimeters since 1984\n\n22.2% of the county's area, as a share of 2,475.1 km²\n\nBear 2024 most recent large fire on record\n\nBefore 20002000s2010s2020s \n\nFire perimeters coloured by decade. Select a perimeter for its name, year and size.\n\nNamed fires on record\n\n-   **Loyalton Fire**202047,029 acres\n-   **Cottonwood Fire**199448,111 acres\n-   **Donner Ridge Fire**196043,374 acres\n-   **Mountain House Fire**195918,522 acres\n-   **Elephant Fire**202613,930 acres in totalcrossed into the county\n-   **Indian Fire**19879,243 acres\n-   **Bear Fire**20243,323 acres\n-   **Balls Canyon Fire**20074,555 acres\n\nPerimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Cottonwood 1994. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.\n\nCommunities\n\n## Where in the county you are _matters most_\n\nFor local context, Loyalton (population 740) has a median wildfire risk score of 64.6. The county’s highest single scored location is also near Loyalton.\n\nDownieville (61.4) and Sierra City (60.6) are close to each other and close to the county midpoint.\n\nSierraville comes in lower at 56.5, and it also includes some of the county’s lowest scored locations.\n\nLoyalton village · 740 people\n\n64.6 _High_\n\nDownieville village\n\n61.4 _High_\n\nSierra City village\n\n60.6 _High_\n\nSierraville village\n\n56.5 _High_\n\nThe 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.\n\nTerrain & fuels\n\n## Terrain, vegetation and _fuels_\n\nTerrain contributes to risk, but it varies in a tighter band than other factors in Sierra County. Terrain scores run from 55.0 near Sierraville to 65.0 near Downieville.\n\nVegetation and fuels vary more: 40.0 in Sierraville up to 80.0 near Loyalton, with a midpoint of 70.0.\n\nFire weather was not measured for Sierra County. What is measured includes hazard-zone scores, which are high in many locations, with a midpoint of 88.2.\n\nPast-fire-pattern scores also vary widely, from 5.0 near Downieville to 95.0 near Loyalton.\n\n55 median terrain score (max 65 near Downieville)\n\n70 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Loyalton)\n\nFire weather\n\n## Fire weather across _Sierra County_\n\nFire weather was not measured at the sampled points in Sierra County. The other four indicators on this page were, and the bars below show what they found.\n\nWhat drives it\n\n## Which part of the risk _moves_, and which doesn't\n\nRisk is not uniform across the county. The highest scored location is near Loyalton at 82.7, while the lowest is in Sierraville at 26.4.\n\nAmong named communities, Loyalton has the highest median score at 64.6. Downieville and Sierra City are close behind at 61.4 and 60.6.\n\nSierraville’s community median is 56.5, which is lower than the other listed communities but still within the county’s broader High-leaning pattern.\n\nEach bar is what one part of the score covers across Sierra 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.\n\nTerrain\n\n55–65 highest near Downieville\n\nVegetation & fuels\n\n40–80 highest near Loyalton\n\nHazard zone\n\n10–93.8 highest near Downieville\n\nFire history\n\n5–95 highest near Loyalton\n\nOverall score\n\n26.4–82.7 highest near Loyalton\n\nThe 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.\n\nShow every number behind these bars\n\nLayer\n\nMin\n\nMedian\n\nMax\n\nLowest place\n\nHighest place\n\nPoints\n\nTerrain\n\n55\n\n55\n\n65\n\nnear Sierraville\n\nnear Downieville\n\n154\n\nVegetation & fuels\n\n40\n\n70\n\n80\n\nSierraville\n\nnear Loyalton\n\n154\n\nHazard zone\n\n10\n\n88.2\n\n93.8\n\nSierraville\n\nnear Downieville\n\n154\n\nFire history\n\n5\n\n20\n\n95\n\nnear Downieville\n\nnear Loyalton\n\n154\n\nComposite\n\n26.4\n\n61.4\n\n82.7\n\nSierraville\n\nnear Loyalton\n\n154\n\nIndependently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at **1.48%** (90th percentile cell: **2.99%**), with a mean conditional flame length of **11.23 ft**. **98%** of the 25,697 grid cells inside the county carry burnable fuel at all.\n\nSource: USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities v2.0 (ImageServer, county extent).\n\nCAL FIRE has no mapped Fire Hazard Severity Zone at **95** of the 154 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas, and most of this county is state or federal land. At **95** of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead.\n\n154 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.\n\nFor a property\n\n## What a county range means for _one address_\n\nFor a property conversation, countywide patterns and the exact location both matter. In this county, most scored points are in the High tier, with smaller pockets in Very High and Moderate.\n\nThe USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities product shows a mean annual burn probability of 1.48%, and a 90th-percentile cell value of 2.99%.\n\nThat same USFS product indicates 98.3% of the county is in cells that can burn, with a mean conditional flame length of 11.23 feet.\n\nAcross 154 sampled points in Sierra County, the score runs from 26.4 to 82.7 — 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.\n\nFind out where your Sierra County parcel sits\n\nSlope, the fuel touching the structure, the road out, the fire history within a mile — measured at your address, not averaged across the county.\n\nFree to request · PDF report with a 0–100 score, the drivers behind it, and a mitigation plan\n\nCoverage\n\n## ZIP codes we cover in Sierra County\n\nEvery one of the 20 ZIP areas that touch Sierra 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.\n\n**Very High** 2 ZIPs\n\n-   [89439 Loyalton82](/wildfire-risk/zip/89439/)\n-   [96105 Loyalton76](/wildfire-risk/zip/96105/)\n\n**High** 9 ZIPs\n\n-   [95922 Downieville70](/wildfire-risk/zip/95922/)\n-   [95910 Downieville67](/wildfire-risk/zip/95910/)\n-   [96125 Sierra City63](/wildfire-risk/zip/96125/)\n-   [96118 Loyalton62](/wildfire-risk/zip/96118/)\n-   [96124 Sierraville62](/wildfire-risk/zip/96124/)\n-   [95960 Downieville62](/wildfire-risk/zip/95960/)\n-   [95936 Downieville61](/wildfire-risk/zip/95936/)\n-   [95944 Downieville60](/wildfire-risk/zip/95944/)\n-   [96126 Sierraville55](/wildfire-risk/zip/96126/)\n\n**No sampled point inside** 9 ZIPs\n\n[89511](/wildfire-risk/zip/89511/) · [95959 Downieville](/wildfire-risk/zip/95959/) · [95981 Downieville](/wildfire-risk/zip/95981/) · [96103 Sierra City](/wildfire-risk/zip/96103/) · [96106 Sierra City](/wildfire-risk/zip/96106/) · [96109 Loyalton](/wildfire-risk/zip/96109/) · [96129 Loyalton](/wildfire-risk/zip/96129/) · [96135 Loyalton](/wildfire-risk/zip/96135/) · [96161 Sierraville](/wildfire-risk/zip/96161/)\n\nGrouped from 11 of 20 ZIP areas — the rest had no sample point fall inside them. The community shown is the nearest mapped place to the ZIP's centre.\n\nZIP areas are Census 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas intersecting the county boundary.\n\nWhere to go next\n\n## Sierra County wildfire risk _in context_\n\n[California wildfire risk The statewide picture and every county page we publish](/wildfire-risk/california/) [Wildfire risk by state Every state and county we cover](/wildfire-risk/) [How Satelife calculates wildfire risk Data sources, layers, score composition, honest limits](/wildfire-risk/methodology/) [Create a wildfire evacuation plan Zones, egress routes, refuge areas](/wildfire-evacuation-plan/) [Run a report for a Sierra County address PDF + score + mitigation plan](/#cta)\n\nFAQ\n\n## Frequently asked questions about _Sierra County wildfire risk_\n\nHow much of Sierra County has burned in recent decades?\n\nSince 1984, 135,782 acres have burned within 59 mapped fire perimeters. That is 22.2% of the county.\n\nWhat are the biggest and most recent large fires listed here?\n\nThe largest listed fire is Cottonwood (1994) at 48,111 acres. The most recent large fire is Bear (2024) at 3,323 acres.\n\nIs wildfire risk the same in every community?\n\nNo. Scores range from 26.4 in Sierraville to 82.7 near Loyalton. Community medians also differ, from 56.5 in Sierraville to 64.6 in Loyalton.\n\nWas fire weather measured across Sierra County?\n\nNo. Fire weather was not measured for Sierra County.\n\nWhat does FEMA say about countywide wildfire risk?\n\nFEMA’s National Risk Index rates Sierra County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate, and its wildfire expected annual loss as Relatively Moderate.\n\nThis page is generated from a Sierra 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.\n\n## What does _your parcel_ look like, layer by layer?\n\nA 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.\n\n[Start with your address →](/#cta)\n\n[![PRR](/images/prr.png)](/ficha-de-website-voucher-satelife.pdf)\n\n© 2024–2026 Satelife, Lda. All rights reserved.\n\nSatelife reports are for informational purposes only and do not constitute insurance, financial, or legal advice."
}