Yosemite Valley, CA
Yosemite Valley wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Yosemite Valley at the 99th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 512 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Yosemite Valley at the 98th percentile, close to its 99th-percentile risk score.
Where Yosemite Valley's buildings actually sit
512 buildings are counted in Yosemite Valley, and 100% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0% rated Minimal.
Where Yosemite Valley ranks
Yosemite Valley scores 99th nationally and 87th within California — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Yosemite Valley ranks 440 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 17,142 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 210 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Yosemite Valley's 99th-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
Hardening a home in Yosemite Valley
Because Direct exposure dominates in Yosemite Valley (100%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Yosemite Valley's 99th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Yosemite Valley, see the exposure-zones guide.