Wildfire risk data at your fingertips

The Wildfire Risk to Communities (WRC) data viewer is the latest addition to the suite of WRC tools and data developed to help communities understand, explore, and reduce wildfire risk. As wildfires have increased in severity and frequency, communities need better access to up-to-date information. The new data viewer makes the entire suite of WRC data available to anyone, without the need for GIS software or managing large data files.

Wildfire Risk to Communities launched in 2020 under the direction of Congress and is designed to help community leaders prioritize wildfire mitigation efforts, identify communities where planning is most needed, and find resources to help mitigate and manage risk. The WRC website, wildfirerisk.org, showcases a limited number of WRC datasets in a way that is approachable and user-friendly, even for those with no technical background. Until now, the full suite of WRC products were only available as downloads in the Forest Service Research Data Archive, which requires users to have skills in managing large data files and using Geographic Information System software. The WRC data viewer provides an easy-to-use web-based platform where users can dig deeper and uncover new insights about wildfire hazard and risk in the places they live.

A community’s wildfire risk is based on several factors: likelihood, intensity, exposure, and susceptibility. Users can visualize and investigate over 15 different data layers related to these factors in the WRC data viewer. The data viewer showcases all downloadable data from WRC, along with state, county, tribal area, and community boundaries. Users can turn layers on or off and zoom into an area of interest to investigate wildfire risk, flame length potential, building exposure, and more. Click anywhere within a geographic boundary to see a popup that summarizes data on wildfire hazard and risk for that geographic area relative to the rest of the country. Visitors to the site can add their own ArcGIS Online data, print maps, and draw on the map itself to highlight certain areas of interest. The site is also capable of comparing layers with a multi-map view that allows simultaneous navigation.

Access the Wildfire Risk to Communities Data Viewer at the link below and keep an eye out for future updates.

Wildfire Risk to Communities Data Viewer

Photo Credit

Screenshot from the WRC Data Viewer

A screenshot from the Wildfire Risk to Communities Data Viewer shows modeled risk to potential structures in a portion of Missoula County, Montana. The popup shows Missoula County's wildfire risk relative to the rest of the country. Users can also advance the popup to see specific wildfire risk values for that pixel. 

Wildfire Risk to Communities is led by the Forest Service: National Headquarters – Fire and Aviation Management, and the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. Headwaters Economics and Pyrologix are partners in developing and delivering the data to the public.