Wildfire risk in Tulare County: where it is highest, and why
Wildfire risk in Tulare County varies a lot by location. Across the places we scored, overall risk runs from 17.6 in Pixley to 80.2 in unincorporated Tulare County, with a middle value of 49.8.
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. 6% of them come out Very High, while 13% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.
43%
38%
13%
Very High6% · 11 of 173 pointsHigh43% · 75 of 173 pointsModerate38% · 65 of 173 pointsLow13% · 22 of 173 points
Safest end we measured17.6near Pixley · Low
Middle of the county49.8Moderate — half of Tulare County is above this
Most exposed end we measured80.2near unincorporated Tulare County · 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
Most scored locations fall in the High tier, with 75 places there, followed by 65 in Moderate.
For county-wide context, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Tulare County’s wildfire risk as Relatively High, and its expected annual wildfire loss as Relatively High.
Fire record
Where the fires actually were
Since 1984, 990,545 acres have burned in Tulare County, and 32.1% of the county has burned over that period. The county record also shows 450 fire perimeters since 1984.
The largest fire in the county record is the Castle fire (2020), at 167,216 acres. The most recent large fire is Springs (2025).
Other major fires in the county record include Windy (2021), McNally (2002), and Trout (2024).
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, Porterville (49.6) sits notably above Visalia (26.4) and Tulare (25.6). That gap is important for buyers and owners comparing neighborhoods across the county.
Other communities sit in between: Orosi is 47.4, Lindsay is 43.9, and Exeter is 36.5.
Three Rivers stands out on the high side at 66.0, while Dinuba is much lower at 24.6. So even within Tulare County, local wildfire risk can differ sharply by community.
Three Riversvillage
66 High
Portervillecity · 59,988 people
49.6 Moderate
Orosivillage · 8,770 people
47.4 Moderate
Lindsaytown · 10,860 people
43.9 Moderate
Strathmorevillage · 2,819 people
39.2 Moderate
Exetertown · 11,169 people
36.5 Moderate
Woodlakevillage · 7,336 people
30.7 Moderate
Tevistonvillage
30.2 Moderate
Richgrovevillage · 2,882 people
29.1 Moderate
Terra Bellavillage · 3,310 people
28 Moderate
13 more communities in Tulare County
Woodvillevillage · 1,740 people
26.9 Moderate
Earlimartvillage · 8,537 people
26.8 Moderate
Visaliacity · 130,104 people
26.4 Moderate
Tularetown · 59,278 people
25.6 Moderate
Farmersvilletown · 10,397 people
25.6 Moderate
Cutlervillage · 5,000 people
25.6 Moderate
Ivanhoevillage · 4,495 people
25 Moderate
Dinubatown · 21,453 people
24.6 Low
Pixleyvillage · 3,310 people
24.3 Low
Tiptonvillage · 2,543 people
23.2 Low
Goshenvillage · 3,006 people
22.6 Low
Londonvillage · 1,869 people
21.1 Low
Delft Colonyvillage · 454 people
19.7 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-related risk ranges from 20.0 near Earlimart to 65.0 near Terra Bella, with a middle value of 40.0. In plain terms, slope and landform are associated with meaningfully different wildfire exposure from one part of the county to another.
Vegetation and fuels show a higher middle level: 67.5 countywide in the scored places. This layer runs from 20.0 in Visalia to 80.0 in unincorporated Tulare County, which contributes to stronger differences between lower-risk valley locations and higher-risk foothill or mountain areas.
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 risk is elevated across the county’s scored locations, with values from 54.5 near Three Rivers to 65.4 in unincorporated Tulare County. The middle value is 56.4.
Separate from fire-weather scoring, the U.S. Forest Service wildfire model reports a mean annual burn probability of 0.97% for the county, with 2.48% at the 90th-percentile cell. It also indicates that 92.1% of the county can burn.
54.5lowest fire-weather score — near Three Rivers
65.4highest fire-weather score — near unincorporated Tulare County
What drives it
Which part of the risk moves, and which doesn't
Risk is not the same from one community to another. Among named communities, Three Rivers has a higher middle score at 66.0, compared with Porterville at 49.6 and Visalia at 26.4.
On the lower end of the listed communities, Delft Colony is 19.7 and London is 21.1, with Goshen at 22.6.
At the county extremes, the highest scored location is in unincorporated Tulare County at 80.2, while the lowest is Pixley at 17.6.
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
54.5–65.4highest near unincorporated Tulare County
Overall score
17.6–80.2highest near unincorporated Tulare County
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
54.5
56.4
65.4
near Three Rivers
unincorporated Tulare County
173
Composite
17.6
49.8
80.2
Pixley
unincorporated Tulare County
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 100%. Scores are 0–100 and comparable within the county, not across states.
For a property
What a county range means for one address
Property-level context in Tulare County is shaped by more than one factor. Hazard-zone scores range 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 up to 95.0 in unincorporated Tulare County, with a middle value of 30.0. Past fire patterns are associated with higher exposure in some areas than others.
Across all scored locations, the largest count is in the High tier (75 places), followed by Moderate (65 places). For an individual home, that means local siting matters, even within the same ZIP code or town.
Across 173 sampled points in Tulare County, the score runs from
17.6 to 80.2 — 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
What is the biggest fire in Tulare County’s record?
Castle (2020) is the largest, at 167,216 acres.
What is the most recent large fire?
The most recent large fire is Springs (2025).
How much of Tulare County has burned since 1984?
32.1% of the county has burned since 1984, totaling 990,545 acres.
What does FEMA say about county-wide wildfire risk?
FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Tulare County’s wildfire risk as Relatively High, and its expected annual wildfire loss as Relatively High.
Is wildfire risk similar across communities in the county?
No. In the listed communities, middle scores range from 19.7 in Delft Colony to 66.0 in Three Rivers.
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.
