Find your home's climate risk factors

[pixy0stix]

The site calculates both wildfire and flood. They also provide the methodology for their calculations.

riskfactor.com/

[abs]

Interesting.

But I'm not sure I believe it. It says my zip code has a moderate risk from wildfires and a minor risk of flooding. Based upon the "historic and unprecedented" floods happening yearly from 2015 on I don't buy it. Drought conditions are definitely worsening here though with relief only coming from hurricanes (lol, "relief") so who knows.

[ny96]

I’m not sure how accurate I find this either. It said my address is a 3/10 for fire risk, but I just paid $600 yesterday for brush clearance required by the fire department and we are encouraged to (and have) a fire evacuation plan.

[shauni27]

while my town is high risk for flood, my house is minimal because we are way up on a hill.

[Michelle]

Our home in a suburb south of Houston has 1/10 risk for flooding and 2/10 risk for wildfires. Since there aren't really many forest areas around us, that is interesting. What there has been keeps getting demolished by housing development.

[pixy0stix]

May 18, 2022 13:29:58 GMT -5 Michelle said:

Our home in a suburb south of Houston has 1/10 risk for flooding and 2/10 risk for wildfires. Since there aren't really many forest areas around us, that is interesting. What there has been keeps getting demolished by housing development.

As CO recently found out, wildfires aren't just for forests. Grassy areas of land can also catch fire.

[Susie]

Our house is identified as a 2/10 for flood, 1/10 for fire, and that seems like a reasonable assessment to me.  We have a creek in the backyard, but it's a very deep 2/3 acre backyard, with a significant slope, and the creek is pretty low, small, and dry.

[pixy0stix]

I'm at 2/10 for wildfire and 1/10 for flood. Obviously my county is much higher for fire risk, but where my house is it's pretty unlikely.

[wesleycrusher]

1/10 for both, which is unsurprising. The biggest risk for us would be landslides.

[macmars45]

My zip code is moderate for flooring. It's my hometown. The last time it flooded was 1996.

My fire risk is severe which I already knew. It's been getting worse every year since 2015/22016. Last year we lived amongst smoke for 2+ months while the fire fighters fought a nearby wildfire. I expect that to be our norm going forward.

[rubytue]

Mine was 1 for both. Not surprising. But I tried my dads property, on a lake in TN. They had it at a 9 for flood, I assume because of proximity to water. Buuuuuuuutt…. It’s a damn controlled lake and all property is build above the flood line. The “750 line” is ingrained in my head (that’s 750 feet elevation) and TVA is supposed to control things. And it hasn’t cross 750 in the past 40 years. So, while I know there is the big “reliance on TVA” factor there…. I wonder if it accounts for that at all. It does get up around 745 once or twice a year, because that closes the main road in.

[goldengirlz]

May 18, 2022 13:40:49 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm at 2/10 for wildfire and 1/10 for flood. Obviously my county is much higher for fire risk, but where my house is it's pretty unlikely.

I got the exact same numbers. Given where we are (closer to the coast so more fog and greener grass), I think that makes sense, despite our general proximity to a wildfire hotspot.

But I don’t think we’re at all protected from climate change. We’re at a much higher risk for breathing in wildfire smoke and the potential health risks from that. That’s what I truly worry about. In a bad year, that smoky air sits on top of us for weeks.

[pumpkincat]

1 for flood (I'd say my actual risk is lower based on grading of my house.

4 for fire. Seems about right. I'm half mile from open areas of desert shrub. In Arizona.

[eddy]

1/10 for both which is comforting. I also am not surprised.

My big worry is tornados and big weather events like that. We had a Derecho two years ago. We are having increased tornado activity. That is what worries me as far as climate change and the risk of my home.

[karinothing]

1/10 for both for me. Unsurprising as I live at the top of a large hill and in an urbanish area.

[AJL]

3/10 - Fire
1/10 - Flood

Our property has a 1.08% chance of being in a wildfire over the next 30 years. However, we are at a "unlikely flood risk."

[Velar Fricative]

3/10 for flooding and 2/10 for fire. Not surprised by the fire number since we are near parkland, but pretty surprised by the flooding number as this house has never flooded (even during hurricanes). But, we are also less than 2 miles from the bay and Ida flooded so many homes all over the place last year that it still scared us enough to get flood insurance for the first time.

[Michelle]

May 18, 2022 13:32:53 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

May 18, 2022 13:29:58 GMT -5 Michelle said:

Our home in a suburb south of Houston has 1/10 risk for flooding and 2/10 risk for wildfires. Since there aren't really many forest areas around us, that is interesting. What there has been keeps getting demolished by housing development.

As CO recently found out, wildfires aren't just for forests. Grassy areas of land can also catch fire.

We don't have a ton of that either! We have a lot of swampy areas near me, and protected wetland marsh areas. But as climate change happens and more droughts happen, the risk of those marshes drying up is climbing, of course.

[Gato]

Mild risk of flooding, mild risk of fire.

The areas on the coast actually do flood once every few years. There's a massive project going on to mitigate that where the flooding touches residential areas. But we're not near that.

[mysteriouswife]

It has me 1/10 for both. I live on a peninsula for a major river that floods often. I’m required to have flood insurance.

[isabel]

Our primary home is 1/10 for both, which doesn't surprise me. But our mountain property only shows as 2/10 for fire risk and I am highly skeptical about that.

[suburbanzookeeper]

6/10 fire, 1/10 for flooding for our home. Not surprising since we had a major fire in 2018 that burned to the end of our street.

[arehopsveggies]

6/10 for fire. Unsurprising as I sit here wheezing from the smoke in the air.

[aurora]

Much higher risk for wildfire than flooding, as expected, but it says it has no record of a wildfire or flood impacting my area in the last decade (meaning it's missing two major events, one of each). I wonder where it looks for that data?

[moonpie]

This is interesting.

My house is a 1/10 for flooding. In the five years we have lived here there have been two 100 year floods. One damaged our home and one did not, but homes a block away were damaged.

[mrsjuleshs]

May 18, 2022 13:29:58 GMT -5 Michelle said:

Our home in a suburb south of Houston has 1/10 risk for flooding and 2/10 risk for wildfires. Since there aren't really many forest areas around us, that is interesting. What there has been keeps getting demolished by housing development.

Same here in West Houston (Katy/Ft. Bend).  Other neighborhoods really close by flooded during Harvey but we were fine.  Growth is insane out here so not sure about the 2/10 wildfire risk here either.

[BicycleBride]

This means absolutely nothing for my zip code because my zip code is over 200 sq miles and includes a river basin and the bluffs surrounding it. There is a pretty clear demarcation and everyone knows what areas are at risk of river/creek flooding and which areas are not. In my very immediate area, river flooding is out of the question but bad drainage is causing quite a few problems. But that isn’t even accounted for in these climate change questions because no data is collected.

[msmerymac]

Minimal for both, because while my borough has a creek running through it, our house is pretty high up and not that close.

Shockingly, my dad's house is at minimal risk for either, considering he lives on a lake. His seawall is about 10 years old, though, and he just completely rebuilt his house and raised the foundation by 18 inches.

However, a ZIP code I'm considering moving to has a "major" flood factor, so I might shelve that, lol.

[Michelle]

May 19, 2022 8:44:01 GMT -5 mrsjuleshs said:

May 18, 2022 13:29:58 GMT -5 Michelle said:

Our home in a suburb south of Houston has 1/10 risk for flooding and 2/10 risk for wildfires. Since there aren't really many forest areas around us, that is interesting. What there has been keeps getting demolished by housing development.

Same here in West Houston (Katy/Ft. Bend).  Other neighborhoods really close by flooded during Harvey but we were fine.  Growth is insane out here so not sure about the 2/10 wildfire risk here either.

I think of the places west of you like Eagle Lake down to Rosenburg - there is a ton of open farmland that could catch fire and spread to you, and it is definitely much drier where you are than where I am. We are in zone 3 for hurricane evacuations because of storm surge - the marshy fields and wetlands are much greater an hour closer to the coast. But who knows... with climate change they may dry up from droughts...