Yolo County, California

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

Wildfire risk in Yolo County varies a lot by location. Across the places we scored, the overall range runs from 18.3 in West Sacramento to 81.2 near Esparto.

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

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Yolo 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 Yolo County scores Moderate or worse

We scored 156 points across Yolo County on the same 0–100 scale a Satelife address report uses, and they do not land in one place. 7% of them come out Very High, while 42% are Low. Which end your own parcel sits at is not something a county map can tell you.

24%

28%

42%

Very High 7% · 11 of 156 points High 24% · 37 of 156 points Moderate 28% · 43 of 156 points Low 42% · 65 of 156 points

Safest end we measured 18.3 near West Sacramento · Low

Middle of the county 26.3 Moderate — half of Yolo County is above this

Most exposed end we measured 81.2 near Esparto · Very High

And the federal models agree it is a fire county

Relatively Low FEMA National Risk Index — wildfire risk rating · index score 87 / 100

$988k / yr FEMA NRI — expected annual loss from wildfire · rated Relatively Moderate

1.04% USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities — mean annual burn probability · 90th-percentile cell 3.43%

4.25 ft USFS WRC — mean conditional flame length · 76% of the county carries burnable fuel

FEMA NRI also rates Yolo County: all-hazards risk Relatively Moderate · social vulnerability Relatively Low · community resilience Relatively High · annualised wildfire frequency 0.0046.

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 Yolo 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 Yolo County

Most scored points fall in the Low tier, with 65 points there. The Moderate tier is also common, with 43 points, while 11 points are in the Very High tier.

For a county-wide view, FEMA’s National Risk Index rates Yolo County’s wildfire risk as "Relatively Low." FEMA also rates the county’s wildfire expected annual loss as "Relatively Moderate."

Fire record

Where the fires actually were

The largest fire in the county record here is the County fire in 2018, at 89,836 acres. Several other major fires in or partly in the county include Rocky (69,438 acres, 2015) and Rumsey (38,763 acres, 2004).

The most recent large fire is Sand (2019), based on the county fire stats. That is the most recent large fire in this record, even though the ranked fire list is ordered by significance rather than date.

Since 1984, fires have burned 198,832 acres in Yolo County, and 30.6% of the county has burned in that period. There have been 52 fire perimeters since 1984.

County Fire (2018) in Yolo County, California - A launch and retrieve team from the 132nd Multirole Bridge Company, 579th Engineer Battalion, 49th Military Police Brigade, Califo — **County Fire, 2018** — Yolo County. Photo: The National Guard Staff Sgt. Edward Siguenza/California National Guard · Public domain

Rocky Fire (2015) in Yolo County, California - Spc. Crysti Gonzalez, left, and a team member of the 132nd Multirole Bridge Company (MRBC), California Army National Guard, carry — **Rocky Fire, 2015** — Yolo County. Photo: Staff Sgt. Edward Siguenza · Public domain

52 mapped fire perimeters centred in the county since 1984

198,832 acres inside those perimeters since 1984

30.6% of the county's area, as a share of 2,631.3 km²

Sand 2019 most recent large fire on record

Named fires on record

County Fire201889,836 acres
Rocky Fire201569,438 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Rumsey Fire200438,763 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Zam Assist Fire200613,969 acres
Jerusalem Fire201525,118 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Langes Peak Fire198114,448 acres
Sixteen Fire199937,893 acres in totalcrossed into the county
Monticello Fire20146,599 acres

Perimeter sources: NIFC Interagency Fire Perimeter History · largest on record: County 2018. Perimeters are simplified for display; acreage is the figure the source records.

Communities

Where in the county you are matters most

Among larger cities, score midpoints are close: Davis is 24.0, Woodland is 23.4, and West Sacramento is 24.2. That places these communities in a similar lower-risk band relative to the county’s full range.

Smaller communities vary more. Winters is 44.7, Esparto is 30.4, and Knights Landing is 23.4.

This is why nearby towns can feel different in wildfire risk terms: local conditions contribute to different score levels even within one county.

Winters village · 7,315 people

44.7 Moderate

Esparto village · 3,572 people

30.4 Moderate

West Sacramento town · 44,162 people

24.2 Low

Davis city · 66,850 people

24 Low

Woodland town · 55,468 people

23.4 Low

Knights Landing village

23.4 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 are low in many flatter areas and higher in hillier areas. The terrain score is 20.0 near Davis at the low end and 65.0 near Esparto at the high end.

Vegetation and fuels show a wider spread. Scores run from 20.0 in Davis to 80.0 near Esparto, with a county midpoint of 45.5.

Taken together, higher terrain and fuels scores are associated with the higher overall wildfire risk areas in the county’s western side near Esparto.

20 median terrain score (max 65 near Esparto)

45.5 median vegetation & fuels score (max 80 near Esparto)

Fire weather

Fire weather across Yolo County

Fire weather was measured across the county and is relatively tight compared with other factors. Scores run from 62.4 near West Sacramento to 69.8 near Davis, with a midpoint of 63.7.

Separate from fire weather, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities model reports a mean annual burn probability of 1.04% for the county, with a 90th-percentile cell value of 3.43%. It also indicates that 75.6% of the county is in areas that can burn.

62.4 lowest fire-weather score — near West Sacramento

69.8 highest fire-weather score — near Davis

What drives it

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

Risk is not even across Yolo County. The lowest scored location is in West Sacramento at 18.3, while the highest scored location is near Esparto at 81.2.

The county midpoint score is 26.3, which means many places sit in the lower part of the overall range, with smaller areas reaching much higher values.

By tier counts, Low is the largest group (65), followed by High (37), and then Very High (11). This mix shows that higher-risk pockets exist, but they are not where most scored points fall.

Each bar is what one part of the score covers across Yolo 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 Esparto

Vegetation & fuels

20–80 highest near Esparto

Hazard zone

10–94.7 highest near Esparto

Fire history

5–95 highest near Winters

Fire weather

62.4–69.8 highest near Davis

Overall score

18.3–81.2 highest near Esparto

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	near Davis	near Esparto	156
Vegetation & fuels	20	45.5	80	Davis	near Esparto	156
Hazard zone	10	10	94.7	near Davis	near Esparto	156
Fire history	5	5	95	near Davis	Winters	156
Fire weather	62.4	63.7	69.8	near West Sacramento	near Davis	156
Composite	18.3	26.3	81.2	West Sacramento	near Esparto	156

Independently of Satelife's layers, the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities grid puts the county's mean annual burn probability at 1.04% (90th percentile cell: 3.43%), with a mean conditional flame length of 4.25 ft. 76% of the 19,447 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 8 of the 156 sampled points — the zones cover Local Responsibility Areas. At 8 of them the USFS grid above supplied the hazard reading instead.

156 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

At the property-area scale, hazard zone scores are low in many places but can spike sharply in specific locations. The hazard zone midpoint is 10.0, while the highest value reaches 94.7 near Esparto.

Fire history also concentrates in specific places. The fire history midpoint is 5.0, but the highest value is 95.0 at Winters.

Structure-level features, such as roof type or vents, were not measured at all in these county wildfire risk scores. Higher property-area risk is associated with where multiple local factors line up, so two addresses in the same town can still differ.

Across 156 sampled points in Yolo County, the score runs from 18.3 to 81.2 — 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 Yolo 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 Yolo County

Every one of the 36 ZIP areas that touch Yolo 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 1 ZIP

95637 Esparto77

High 3 ZIPs

Moderate 7 ZIPs

Low 7 ZIPs

No sampled point inside 18 ZIPs

94558 Winters · 95457 · 95615 West Sacramento · 95659 Knights Landing · 95688 Winters · 95690 Davis · 95697 Woodland · 95811 West Sacramento · 95814 West Sacramento · 95818 West Sacramento · 95822 West Sacramento · 95831 West Sacramento · 95832 West Sacramento · 95833 West Sacramento · 95834 West Sacramento · 95837 West Sacramento · 95912 Esparto · 95987

Grouped from 18 of 36 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

Yolo 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 Yolo County address PDF + score + mitigation plan

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Yolo County wildfire risk

What does FEMA’s "Relatively Low" wildfire rating mean for Yolo County?

It is FEMA National Risk Index’s county-wide wildfire risk rating for Yolo County. It is not a neighborhood rating, and it is separate from the location-level wildfire scores shown on this page.

Which fire was the largest, and which was the most recent large fire?

The largest listed fire is County (2018) at 89,836 acres. The most recent large fire is Sand (2019), per the county fire stats.

If a city has a lower midpoint score, does every property there have low risk?

No. City midpoints summarize nearby scored locations, but risk still varies by address. Countywide, scores span from 18.3 to 81.2, showing substantial local differences.

Is fire weather the same thing as burn probability?

No. Fire weather scores describe weather-related wildfire conditions, while burn probability comes from the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities model. In Yolo County, that model reports a mean annual burn probability of 1.04%.