Wildfire Hazard Potential* for the United States
The wildfire hazard potential (WHP) map is a raster geospatial product produced by the USDA Forest Service, Fire Modeling Institute that can help to inform evaluations of wildfire hazard or prioritization of fuels management needs across very large landscapes. Our specific objective with the WHP map is to depict the relative potential for wildfire that would be difficult for suppression resources to contain. To create the 2020 version, we built upon spatial datasets of wildfire likelihood and intensity generated for the conterminous U.S. with the Large Fire Simulator (FSim), as well as spatial fuels and vegetation data from LANDFIRE 2014 and point locations of past fire occurrence (ca. 1992 - 2015). With these datasets as inputs, we produced an index of WHP for the United States at a 270-meter resolution. We present the WHP map in two forms: 1) continuous integer values, and 2) five WHP classes of very low, low, moderate, high, and very high. Areas mapped with higher WHP values represent fuels with a higher probability of experiencing torching, crowning, and other forms of extreme fire behavior under conducive weather conditions, based primarily on landscape conditions at the end of 2014.
On its own, WHP is not an explicit map of wildfire threat or risk. Its primary purpose is to highlight places where vegetation treatments may be needed to reduce the intensity of future wildfires. It is one of several factors used to prioritize limited fuel treatment resources. WHP is a tool for long-term strategic planning, but it is not a forecast or wildfire outlook for any particular season, as it does not include any information on current or forecasted weather or fuel moisture conditions.
Starting with the 2020 version, the WHP dataset is integrated with the Wildfire Risk to Communities project. The 2020 dataset is the first version to include Alaska and Hawaii. There is a spatially-refined, 30-m resolution version of the WHP as part of the downloadable Wildfire Risk to Communities data, and related datasets that depict other components of wildfire hazard and risk to homes.
*Versions of this product prior to 2014 were known as the Wildland Fire Potential (WFP) map.
Download raster GIS data from the Forest Service Research Data Archive.
Data also available as an image service via ArcGIS Online.
Classified Wildfire Hazard Potential (5 WHP classes, plus non-burnable lands and water)
Download raster GIS data from the Forest Service Research Data Archive.
Continuous Wildfire Hazard Potential (integer values from 0 to 100,000)
2018 Wildfire Hazard Potential - Based on LANDFIRE 2012 fuels. Released in July 2018.
Classified 2018 WHP (5 WHP classes, plus non-burnable lands and water)
Continuous 2018 WHP (integer values from 0 to 100,000)
WHP 2014 to 2018 Change Summary
2014 Wildfire Hazard Potential - Based on LANDFIRE 2010 fuels. Released in December 2014.
Classified 2014 WHP (5 WHP classes, plus non-burnable lands and water)
Continuous 2014 WHP (integer values from 0 to 100,000)
WFP 2012 to WHP 2014 Change Summary
2012 Wildland Fire Potential - Based on LANDFIRE 2008 fuels. Released in February 2013.
Classified 2012 WFP (5 WFP classes, plus non-burnable lands and water)
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