Yuba County, California

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

Wildfire risk in Yuba County varies a lot by location. Across the places we scored, the overall score runs from 18.9 near Marysville to 82.5 near Loma Rica, with a middle value of 64.9.

Score my Yuba County address → How risky is this county? ↓

Before 20002000s2010s2020sCommunity

Yuba 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 Yuba County scores High or worse

We scored 159 points across Yuba County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 26% of them come out Very High, while 5% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

26%

39%

30%

Very High 26% · 41 of 159 points High 39% · 62 of 159 points Moderate 30% · 48 of 159 points Low 5% · 8 of 159 points

Safest end we measured 18.9 near Marysville · Low

Middle of the county 64.9 High — half of Yuba County is above this

Most exposed end we measured 82.5 near Loma Rica · Very High

And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively Moderate FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 96.8 / 100

$7.1M / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Moderate

1.16% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 3.11%

9.39 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 94% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates Yuba County: all-hazards risk Relatively Low · social vulnerability Relatively Low · community resilience Relatively Low · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0053.

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 Yuba 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 Yuba County

Higher tiers are common in this county view. The largest group of scored locations is in the High tier (62 points), and another 41 points are in Very High.

FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Yuba County’s wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate, and its expected annual wildfire loss as Relatively Moderate.

Fire record

Where the fires actually were

The county’s largest fire and most recent large fire is Cascade (2017), at 16,141 acres.

Since 1984, 56,211 acres have burned in Yuba County, which is 13.7% of the county, with 130 recorded fire perimeters.

Another major incident tied to the county footprint is the 49'Er fire (1988), which burned 36,343 acres and was partly in Yuba County.

Pendola Fire (1999) in Yuba County, California - This is a map of the extent of the 1999 Pendola Fire in Northern California's Yuba County, where the fire burned more than 11,000 — **Pendola Fire, 1999** — Yuba County. Photo: Penitentes · Public domain

130 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984

56,211 acres inside those perimeters since 1984

13.7% of the county's area, as a share of 1,658 km²

Cascade 2017 most recent large fire on record

Named fires on record

Cascade Fire201716,141 acres
Pendola Fire199912,324 acres
Yuba Fire20093,829 acres
Williams Fire19975,838 acres
Mountain House Fire195918,522 acres in totalcrossed into the county
49'Er Fire198836,343 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Camp Beale #2 Fire19504,886 acres
Carmichael #2 Fire19604,366 acres

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

Communities

Where in the county you are matters most

Among the larger communities shown, Linda has a median score of 41.1 and Olivehurst is 40.1, both above Marysville at 32.2.

In foothill communities, scores are much higher: Challenge is 78.8, Brownsville is 75.0, and Camptonville is 72.5. This is the main county pattern: higher exposure in some communities and lower exposure in others.

Challenge village

78.8 Very High

Brownsville village

75 Very High

Camptonville village

72.5 High

Loma Rica village

67 High

Linda town · 21,654 people

41.1 Moderate

Olivehurst town · 13,656 people

40.1 Moderate

Wheatland village · 3,580 people

39.3 Moderate

Marysville town · 12,327 people

32.2 Moderate

Plumas Lake village · 5,853 people

31.8 Moderate

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 wildfire risk scores run from 20.0 in Plumas Lake to 65.0 near Loma Rica, with a county middle of 40.0.

Vegetation and fuels vary even more: from 15.8 near Linda up to 78.2 in Loma Rica, with a middle value of 58.0. Those differences contribute to why some nearby areas score much higher overall than others.

40 median terrain score (max 65 near Loma Rica)

58 median vegetation & fuels score (max 78.2 near Loma Rica)

Fire weather

Fire weather across Yuba County

Fire-weather scores are elevated across the county view and less spread out than other factors. They range from 55.5 in Camptonville to 64.7 near Loma Rica, with a middle value of 64.7.

So, compared with terrain or fuels, fire weather changes less from place to place here, while still contributing to overall wildfire risk.

55.5 lowest fire-weather score — near Camptonville

64.7 highest fire-weather score — near Loma Rica

What drives it

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

The county shows a clear place-to-place split in exposure. Challenge has a community median score of 78.8 and Brownsville is 75.0, while Marysville is 32.2.

Camptonville (72.5) and Loma Rica (67.0) are also elevated compared with Plumas Lake at 31.8. In practical terms, nearby communities can sit in very different parts of the county risk range.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Yuba 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 Loma Rica

Vegetation & fuels

15.8–78.2 highest near Loma Rica

Hazard zone

10–93.7 highest near Camptonville

Fire history

5–95 highest near Wheatland

Fire weather

55.5–64.7 highest near Loma Rica

Overall score

18.9–82.5 highest near Loma Rica

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	Plumas Lake	near Loma Rica	159
Vegetation & fuels	15.8	58	78.2	near Linda	Loma Rica	159
Hazard zone	10	70	93.7	Plumas Lake	Camptonville	159
Fire history	5	90	95	Marysville	Wheatland	159
Fire weather	55.5	64.7	64.7	Camptonville	Loma Rica	49
Composite	18.9	64.9	82.5	near Marysville	near Loma Rica	159

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 1.16% (90th percentile cell: 3.11%), with a mean conditional flame length of 9.39 ft. 94% of the 15,425 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 24 of the 159 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 24 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead.

159 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 property context, hazard-zone scores span from 10.0 in Plumas Lake to 93.7 in Camptonville, with a county middle of 70.0.

Fire-history scores are also high in many places: the middle is 90.0, with 95.0 in Wheatland and 5.0 in Marysville.

The USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities model reports a mean annual burn probability of 1.16%, with 3.11% in its 90th-percentile cells. It also indicates that 94.1% of Yuba County is in areas that can burn.

At the county level, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates overall wildfire risk as Relatively Moderate, while rating all-hazards risk, social vulnerability, and community resilience as Relatively Low.

Across 159 sampled points in Yuba County, the score runs from 18.9 to 82.5 — 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 Yuba 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 Yuba County

Every one of the 27 ZIP areas that touch Yuba 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.

Very High 6 ZIPs

High 6 ZIPs

Moderate 3 ZIPs

No sampled point inside 12 ZIPs

95648 Wheatland · 95659 Plumas Lake · 95674 Wheatland · 95681 Wheatland · 95914 Loma Rica · 95941 Challenge · 95946 Loma Rica · 95953 Marysville · 95959 Camptonville · 95965 Brownsville · 95972 Brownsville · 95991 Plumas Lake

Grouped from 15 of 27 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

Yuba County wildfire risk in context

California wildfire risk The statewide picture and every county page we publish Wildfire risk by state Every state and county we cover How Satelife calculates wildfire risk Data sources, layers, score composition, honest limits Create a wildfire evacuation plan Zones, egress routes, refuge areas Run a report for a Yuba County address PDF + score + mitigation plan

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Yuba County wildfire risk

What does the wildfire score mean?

Scores run from 0 to 100, and higher scores mean higher wildfire exposure at that location.

Does most of Yuba County fall in high tiers?

In the places scored, the biggest group is High (62 points), followed by Very High (41 points). Moderate has 48 points, and Low has 8.

What is the most recent large fire in the county?

Cascade (2017) is the most recent large fire, and it is also listed as the largest, at 16,141 acres.

How much of the county has burned since 1984?

56,211 acres have burned since 1984, which equals 13.7% of Yuba County.

What does FEMA say about county-wide wildfire risk?