Wildfire risk in Tulare County: where it is highest, and why
Wildfire risk is not uniform in Tulare County. The overall scores run from 15.6 in London up to 80.9 near Three Rivers, with a county middle value of 49.2.
Tulare 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 Tulare County scores Moderate or worse
We scored 173 points across Tulare County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 8% of them come out Very High, while 17% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.
42%
33%
17%
Very High8% · 14 of 173 pointsHigh42% · 72 of 173 pointsModerate33% · 57 of 173 pointsLow17% · 30 of 173 points
Safest end we measured15.6near London · Low
Middle of the county49.2Moderate — half of Tulare County is above this
Most exposed end we measured80.9near Three Rivers · Very High
And the federal models agree it is a fire county
Relatively HighFEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 98 / 100
$10.0M / yrFEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively High
0.97%USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 2.48%
4.55 ftUSFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 92% of the county carries burnable fuel
FEMA NRI also rates Tulare County: all-hazards risk Relatively High · social vulnerability Relatively High · community resilience Very Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0049.
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 Tulare 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 Tulare County
Looking at the four risk tiers, High is the most common tier among the places we scored (72), followed by Moderate (57) and Low (30).
County fire activity has also been substantial over time: 32.1% of the county has burned since 1984.
Fire record
Where the fires actually were
The largest fire listed for Tulare County is the Castle Fire in 2020, at 167,216 acres.
Since 1984, a total of 990,545 acres have burned in the county.
The most recent large fire is Springs (2025). The county record also shows 450 fire perimeters since 1984.
Windy Fire, 2021 — Tulare County.
Photo: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery · AttributionManter Fire, 2000 — Tulare County.
Photo: Tech. Sgt. Lono Kollars, U.S. Air Force · Public domain
450mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984
990,545acres inside those perimeters since 1984
32.1%of the county's area, as a share of 12,483 km²
Springs 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
Castle Fire2020167,216 acres
Windy Fire202197,528 acres
McNally Fire2002149,475 acres
Manter Fire200079,223 acres
Pier Fire201736,619 acres
Cedar Fire201629,101 acres
Trout Fire202423,822 acres
Lion Fire201718,914 acres
Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · WFIGS Interagency Perimeters · largest on record: Castle 2020.
Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.
Communities
Where in the county you are matters most
Among larger cities and towns, lower median wildfire risk appears in Visalia (23.1), Tulare (25.6), and Dinuba (21.0).
Higher community medians appear in Porterville (49.6), Orosi (46.4), and Lindsay (43.9).
Three Rivers stands out at 67.3, while places like Exeter (34.3) and Strathmore (39.2) sit between the valley lows and the foothill highs.
Three Riversvillage
67.3 High
Portervillecity · 59,988 people
49.6 Moderate
Orosivillage · 8,770 people
46.4 Moderate
Lindsaytown · 10,860 people
43.9 Moderate
Strathmorevillage · 2,819 people
39.2 Moderate
Exetertown · 11,169 people
34.3 Moderate
Tevistonvillage
30.2 Moderate
Terra Bellavillage · 3,310 people
28 Moderate
Woodlakevillage · 7,336 people
27.8 Moderate
Woodvillevillage · 1,740 people
26.9 Moderate
13 more communities in Tulare County
Earlimartvillage · 8,537 people
26.6 Moderate
Richgrovevillage · 2,882 people
26.1 Moderate
Tularetown · 59,278 people
25.6 Moderate
Farmersvilletown · 10,397 people
25.6 Moderate
Pixleyvillage · 3,310 people
24.3 Low
Tiptonvillage · 2,543 people
23.2 Low
Visaliacity · 130,104 people
23.1 Low
Cutlervillage · 5,000 people
22.2 Low
Ivanhoevillage · 4,495 people
21.5 Low
Dinubatown · 21,453 people
21 Low
Goshenvillage · 3,006 people
18.9 Low
Londonvillage · 1,869 people
17.2 Low
Delft Colonyvillage · 454 people
15.6 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 range from 20.0 near Earlimart to 65.0 near Terra Bella, with a county middle of 40.0. Steeper and more varied ground is associated with higher wildfire risk in parts of the county.
Vegetation and fuels are generally elevated: the middle score is 67.5, with a low of 20.0 in Visalia and a high of 80.0 in unincorporated Tulare County. In practical terms, fuels contribute strongly to how risk differs from one area to another.
LANDFIRE existing vegetation type across Tulare County — the same fuel data that feeds the
vegetation layer of a Satelife property report.
Fire weather
Fire weather across Tulare County
Fire weather was measured across the county, and the values are tightly grouped: 55.0 near Terra Bella, 55.4 at the county middle, and 56.5 in Earlimart.
Because that spread is narrow, day-to-day weather risk signals are relatively similar from one scored location to another compared with the larger swings seen in terrain and fuels.
55lowest fire-weather score — near Terra Bella
56.5highest fire-weather score — near Earlimart
What drives it
Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't
Higher wildfire risk shows up most clearly around the Sierra foothill side of the county. Three Rivers has a median score of 67.3, and the highest point scored in the county is 80.9 near Three Rivers.
Lower scores are concentrated in several valley communities, including Delft Colony at 15.6, London at 17.2, and Goshen at 18.9.
Other communities sit in the middle-to-higher range, such as Porterville at 49.6, Orosi at 46.4, and Lindsay at 43.9.
Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Tulare 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 Terra Bella
Vegetation & fuels
20–80highest near unincorporated Tulare County
Hazard zone
10–93.7highest near unincorporated Tulare County
Fire history
5–95highest near unincorporated Tulare County
Fire weather
55–56.5highest near Earlimart
Overall score
15.6–80.9highest near Three Rivers
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 Earlimart
near Terra Bella
173
Vegetation & fuels
20
67.5
80
Visalia
unincorporated Tulare County
173
Hazard zone
10
40
93.7
near Earlimart
unincorporated Tulare County
173
Fire history
5
30
95
Richgrove
unincorporated Tulare County
173
Fire weather
55
55.4
56.5
near Terra Bella
Earlimart
82
Composite
15.6
49.2
80.9
London
near Three Rivers
173
Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 0.97% (90th percentile cell: 2.48%), with a mean conditional flame length of 4.55 ft. 92% of the 32,615 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 73 of the 173 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 69 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead; at the remaining 4 the hazard weight is renormalised away rather than scored as low.
173 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
For county-wide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Tulare County’s wildfire risk as Relatively High, and its expected annual wildfire loss rating as Relatively High. FEMA also rates county social vulnerability as Relatively High and community resilience as Very Low.
The U.S. Forest Service Wildfire Risk to Communities model reports a mean annual burn probability of 0.97%, with a 90th-percentile cell at 2.48%, and says 92.1% of the county can burn.
Hazard-zone scores vary widely by location, from 10.0 near Earlimart to 93.7 in unincorporated Tulare County, with a middle value of 40.0.
Fire-history scores also span a wide range: 5.0 in Richgrove, 30.0 at the county middle, and 95.0 in unincorporated Tulare County.
Across 173 sampled points in Tulare County, the score runs from
15.6 to 80.9 — 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 Tulare 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 Tulare County
Every one of the 54 ZIP areas that touch Tulare 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 Tulare County wildfire risk
Is Tulare County considered high risk for wildfire overall?
At the county level, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Tulare County as Relatively High for wildfire risk.
Which fire was the largest, and what is the most recent large fire?
The largest listed fire is Castle (2020) at 167,216 acres. The most recent large fire is Springs (2025).
Where are wildfire risk scores highest and lowest in the county?
The highest scored area is near Three Rivers (80.9). The lowest score shown is in London (15.6), with other low valley values such as Delft Colony (15.6) and Goshen (18.9).
Does fire weather vary a lot across Tulare County?
Not much in the scored locations. Fire-weather scores are closely clustered, from 55.0 to 56.5.
How much of the county has burned in recent decades?
32.1% of Tulare County has burned since 1984, totaling 990,545 acres.
This page is generated from a Tulare 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.
