LOS ANGELES — The number of California properties facing severe wildfire risk will grow sixfold over the next 30 years when considering only the impact of climate change, according to projections released Monday by a nonprofit research group.
Just over 100,000 properties in the state currently have a 1% or greater annual chance of being affected by wildfire. The number is expected to reach about 600,000 by 2052, according to the data from First Street Foundation.
The modeling, which marks the first effort to calculate the fire risk of each property in the United States, assumes that development will remain constant and takes into account only climate inputs, according to Jeremy Porter, the foundation's chief research officer.