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Stanislaus County, California

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

Wildfire risk in Stanislaus County spans a wide range across the places we scored. The lowest overall score is 13.4 in Turlock, while the highest is 77.9 near Patterson, with a county midpoint of 28.9.

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Stanislaus 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 Stanislaus County scores Moderate or worse

We scored 162 points across Stanislaus 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 48% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

Very High 1% · 2 of 162 points High 35% · 56 of 162 points Moderate 17% · 27 of 162 points Low 48% · 77 of 162 points
Safest end we measured 13.4 near Turlock · Low
Middle of the county 28.9 Moderate — half of Stanislaus County is above this
Most exposed end we measured 77.9 near Patterson · Very High

And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively Moderate FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 95 / 100
$3.7M / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Moderate
0.92% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 2.27%
3.22 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 86% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates Stanislaus County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively Low · community resilience Relatively Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0060.

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 Stanislaus 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 Stanislaus County

Looking at the four address-report tiers, Low is the most common tier, with 77 scored points. Very High appears at 2 points, while High and Moderate make up much of the rest.

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

Fire record

Where the fires actually were

Since 1984, 116,839 acres have burned in Stanislaus County fire perimeters, and 12.1% of the county has burned in that period. The county records 100 fire perimeters since 1984.

The largest fire listed for the county is Canyon (2006), at 34,218 acres.

The most recent large fire is 2-2 (2025), at 3,463 acres. The Lick fire also stands out at 47,748 acres and was partly in Stanislaus County.

100 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
116,839 acres inside those perimeters since 1984
12.1% of the county's area, as a share of 3,906.1 km²
2-2 2025 most recent large fire on record
Named fires on record
  • Canyon Fire200634,218 acres
  • Waverly Fire201811,760 acres
  • Annie Fire200318,210 acres
  • Lick Fire200747,748 acres in totalcrossed into the county
  • Bird_1 Fire20037,876 acres
  • 2-2 Fire20253,463 acres
  • Del_Puerto_2 Fire20035,909 acres
  • Bollinger Ridge Fire196132,866 acres in totalcrossed into the county

Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Canyon 2006. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.

Communities

Where in the county you are matters most

In the larger cities, Modesto scores lower at 14.5 than Turlock at 18.8. Ceres is close to Turlock at 19.2.

Among towns, Oakdale is notably higher at 28.9, while Patterson is 22.8 and Newman is 21.1.

In smaller places, Empire is lower at 16.1, while Waterford is 20.6 and Riverdale Park is 19.6.

Oakdale town · 19,296 people
28.9 Moderate
Patterson town · 20,413 people
22.8 Low
Newman town · 10,224 people
21.1 Low
Waterford village · 8,812 people
20.6 Low
Riverdale Park village · 1,128 people
19.6 Low
Hughson village · 6,640 people
19.3 Low
Ceres town · 45,417 people
19.2 Low
Turlock city · 72,740 people
18.8 Low
Denair village · 4,404 people
18.6 Low
Riverbank town · 22,678 people
17.5 Low
2 more communities in Stanislaus County
Empire village · 4,189 people
16.1 Low
Modesto city · 211,266 people
14.5 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

Fire weather was not measured for Stanislaus County.

Terrain scores are mostly at the low end, with a county midpoint of 20.0 and a high of 65.0 near Patterson.

Vegetation and fuels vary more than terrain. The midpoint is 46.0, and the high reaches 80.0 near Patterson.

20 median terrain score (max 65 near Patterson)
46 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Patterson)
Fire weather

Fire weather across Stanislaus County

Fire weather was not measured at the sampled points in Stanislaus 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

Risk is not even across the county. The highest overall score, 77.9, is near Patterson, while the lowest, 13.4, is in Turlock.

By tier counts, Low shows up most often with 77 points, and High is also common at 56 points.

Among named communities, Oakdale has a higher central score at 28.9, while Modesto is lower at 14.5. Patterson sits between them at 22.8.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Stanislaus 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
20–65 highest near Patterson
Vegetation & fuels
20–80 highest near Patterson
Hazard zone
10–90 highest near Newman
Fire history
5–95 highest near Patterson
Overall score
13.4–77.9 highest near Patterson

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 20 65 Newman near Patterson 162
Vegetation & fuels 20 46 80 Turlock near Patterson 162
Hazard zone 10 10 90 Newman near Newman 162
Fire history 5 5 95 near Newman near Patterson 162
Composite 13.4 28.9 77.9 Turlock near Patterson 162

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.92% (90th percentile cell: 2.27%), with a mean conditional flame length of 3.22 ft. 86% of the 15,470 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 1 of the 162 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 1 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead.

162 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

Two location-based factors can differ a lot even within the same county. The hazard-zone score runs from 10.0 up to 90.0, with both ends appearing around Newman.

Past-fire pattern scores also spread widely, from 5.0 near Newman to 95.0 near Patterson.

For a separate county-wide model, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities product shows a mean annual burn probability of 0.92%, and a 90th-percentile cell value of 2.27%. It also indicates that 86.3% of the county can burn under that model.

Across 162 sampled points in Stanislaus County, the score runs from 13.4 to 77.9 — 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 Stanislaus 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 Stanislaus County

Every one of the 41 ZIP areas that touch Stanislaus 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 24 of 41 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

Stanislaus County wildfire risk in context

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Stanislaus County wildfire risk

Is wildfire risk the same everywhere in Stanislaus County?

No. Scores range from 13.4 in Turlock to 77.9 near Patterson, so location within the county is associated with meaningful differences in wildfire risk.

What does FEMA say about Stanislaus County?

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates the county’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate. It rates the county’s all-hazards risk as Relatively High.

How much of the county has burned?

12.1% of Stanislaus County has burned since 1984, totaling 116,839 acres within mapped fire perimeters.

What are the key fires to know here?

The largest fire listed for the county is Canyon (2006), at 34,218 acres. The most recent large fire is 2-2 (2025), at 3,463 acres.

Was fire weather included in these county scores?

No. Fire weather was not measured for Stanislaus County in this scoring set.

This page is generated from a Stanislaus 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.

Start with your address →