Free Planning Tool
Get the Android appWildfire Risk Calculator
Screen surface wildfire risk at your property using official US fuel-layer maps, local weather, a 16-day outlook, and a Rothermel spread model.
How it works
This tool screens surface wildfire risk at a specific address. It pulls official land-cover and terrain data, blends in live weather and a two-week outlook, then runs a standard fire-behavior model to produce a 0–100 score for planning. It is educational only — not a substitute for a professional mitigation assessment or official fire-danger ratings.
Four steps
We geocode your street address to a map coordinate. Rural US addresses use a Census fallback when OpenStreetMap doesn’t have them on file.
Official US fuel-layer maps tell us what vegetation could burn, plus slope and canopy cover at that pin. If the pin lands on a driveway or clearing, we scan wildland fuels within ~500 m.
Current wind, humidity, and temperature feed the model. We also flag the highest-stress days in a free 16-day outlook and link NOAA seasonal drought pages.
A Rothermel surface spread model estimates how fast fire could move on the ground, then we convert that into a 0–100 risk score with Low through Extreme bands.
How the score is built
No calculation needed — hover a slice to see what each factor means.
No calculation needed — tap a slice to see what each factor means.
Rural tip: Driveway pins often map as “urban” even in timber. We scan wildland fuels within ~500 m and score the nearest burnable bed so your result reflects the forest around the home, not just the gravel driveway.
Check Your Property
Montana wildfire risk calculator — how it works
Montana wildfire risk calculator
Free address-based screening for Montana and Western U.S. properties. Enter your address above for a fuel-model lookup, slope context, live weather, and a surface fire behavior score — then bring the results to a defensible-space consultation if you want hands-on mitigation work.
What is LANDFIRE?
LANDFIRE is the U.S. federal program that maps wildland fuels, canopy cover, and topography nationwide. We pull the fuel model at (and near) your pin so the score reflects the vegetation around your home — not just the driveway or lawn. That matters in rural Montana, where geocoders often drop pins on access roads while the burnable fuels sit upslope in timber.
What is the Rothermel model?
The Rothermel surface fire spread model is the standard U.S. wildland fire behavior equation. Given a fuel type, wind, slope, and moisture conditions, it estimates how fast a surface fire could spread and how intensely it might burn. Our calculator combines LANDFIRE fuels with live weather from Open-Meteo and optional custom wind, humidity, and temperature — producing a practical screening score, not an official red-flag warning.
How is this different from Risk Factor (Fire Factor)?
Risk Factor (by First Street Foundation) gives a national 1–10 Fire Factor score based on climate-adjusted property models — useful for insurance and long-range planning. This tool is built for field planning: it uses the same class of federal fuel data firefighters train on (LANDFIRE), current weather at your location, and a Rothermel-based surface fire readout. It is designed to start a conversation about defensible space, fuel reduction, and hazardous tree work — with a Montana wildfire mitigation crew, not just a dashboard number.
Who should use this?
- Homeowners in the wildland-urban interface across Montana, Idaho, and the Northern Rockies
- Landowners preparing for a defensible-space or fuel-reduction consultation
- Anyone comparing weather windows before slash pile burning or mitigation work
Educational screening only — not a substitute for official fire-danger ratings, NFPA defensible-space inspection, or professional mitigation assessment.
Need more than a calculator?
Turn your risk score into a plan
Bring your screening results to a defensible-space walkthrough — we’ll assess fuels, structure exposure, and build a mitigation plan for your property.