How many roads lead out of a town, and how likely is the land around it to burn? This map puts the two side by side for 30,728 U.S. communities with fewer than 50,000 people, so you can see where few ways out meet a high chance of fire.
LowMediumHigh6 or fewer exits7 or more exits
Each dot is a community, coloured by its number of road exits and its burn hazard (low, medium, high). Dark purple marks few ways out and a high chance of fire.
Search for any community by name
Hover over or tap a dot to see its exits and burn hazard
Use the key to show or hide each group
Not for use in an emergency. This is scientific research from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), University of California, Santa Barbara, shared for information only. It does not show current fires, road closures, traffic or evacuation orders, and a road counted here as an exit may be blocked or unsafe during a fire. Do not use it during an active wildfire. For information about your area, contact your local emergency management agency and follow instructions from local officials. In a life-threatening emergency, call 911.
Wildfire Evacuation Risk Across U.S. Communities
Road exits and wildfire burn hazard for 30,728 communities with fewer than 50,000 people, in all 50 states.
Key
Click a square to hide or show itTap a square to hide it
Burn hazard →
Low
Medium
High
Darkest colour: few exits and high burn hazard. Numbers are communities in each group. Where dots overlap, the darker groups are drawn on top.
About this map
Each dot is one U.S. community: a city, town, village or census-designated place with fewer than 50,000 residents (30,728 places in all 50 states). Its colour combines two things: how many roads lead out of it, and how likely the land in and around it is to burn.
Not for emergency use
This map is part of a scientific research project at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), University of California, Santa Barbara, and is shared for information only. It does not show current fires, road closures, traffic or evacuation orders. In an emergency, follow instructions from local officials and contact your local emergency management agency; in a life-threatening emergency, call 911.
Exits
An exit is a road that crosses the community's boundary. Only through roads are counted (OpenStreetMap motorway, trunk, primary, secondary and tertiary roads); residential streets and tracks are not. A two-way road counts as one exit and a one-way road as half, so 2,293 communities have half-numbers such as 6.5. The map splits communities into 6 or fewer exits and 7 or more exits. The count says nothing about how much traffic a road can carry or where it leads.
Burn hazard
Burn hazard combines two values of annual burn probability inside the community's boundary: the average and the highest. Each is rescaled from 0 to 1 across all communities, and the two are averaged into one score. Communities are then grouped by where they fall among all 30,728:
Low: the lower half (score ≤ 0.0027)
Medium: between the middle and the top tenth (0.0027 < score ≤ 0.0352)
High: the top tenth (score > 0.0352)
Burn probability comes from the USFS Wildfire Risk to Communities data (270 m cells). It is a long-run likelihood, not a forecast for this year.
How to read the colours
Blue to dark purple: 6 or fewer exits, with burn hazard rising from low to high. Light grey to red: 7 or more exits, with the same rise. Dark purple marks the combination this map is meant to find: few ways out and a high chance of fire. Click a square in the key to hide or show that group.
Research map · NCEAS, UC Santa Barbara