Sonoma, CA
How exposed is Sonoma to wildfire?
Sonoma sits at the 74th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 5,570 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Sonoma's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 75th percentile nationally.
Where Sonoma's buildings actually sit
Most of Sonoma's buildings (83.6%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone. At 5,570 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Sonoma ranks
Inside California, Sonoma sits at just the 32nd percentile even though it scores 74th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Sonoma ranks 8,086 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,092 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,067 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
Sonoma and the insurance market
Because Sonoma is in California, a wildfire-hazard disclosure is legally required before a sale closes here — unusual nationally, since only these two states mandate it. The state's FAIR Plan alone carried 668,609 policies by the end of 2025. Full detail in the disclosure-law guide.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Sonoma's 83.6% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Sonoma's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 5,570 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Sonoma. The exposure-zones guide covers what Sonoma's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.