The city of Austin is surrounded by miles and miles of rolling Hill Country, dotted with Ashe juniper trees and blanketed with long native grasses. Most Austinites are probably not aware of it, but that means that our city is basically nestled in a high-risk wildfire zone, with our Central Texas flora being relatively dry and flammable.
“The grassland fuels ignite pretty quickly, and they can spread pretty quickly, especially if we have a strong wind,” said James Thompson, a professor at UT-Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences who studies wildfire behavior. “Somewhere like the western U.S., they have more densely forested areas … but they don’t have as many fine fuels that we have here in Central Texas.”
Fine fuels are those small, dry, highly flammable grasses, Texas cedar needles, and twiggy brambles. If there was no city of Austin, the grasslands of the Hill Country would naturally break into wildfire every one to three years, burning and repopulating the area. The only reason that doesn’t happen is because of the city and county’s efforts to clear those fuels through prescribed burns, so a future fire spreads slowly enough to stop it.
But with climate change, Central Texas is already seeing rising annual temperatures and water evaporation out of hotter soil and vegetation, which increases wildfire risk. More rain events will also cause more regrowth, and if followed by a dry spell, “there’s more fuel for the fire to feed on,” Thompson said.
After a historically dry fall, the Austin area is now seeing elevated drought and fire weather conditions going into December. Mayor Kirk Watson and Travis County Judge Andy Brown issued disaster declarations on Oct. 20, following Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide disaster declaration for high wildfire risk in nearly 180 counties. Austin Parks and Recreation’s burn ban, which was announced on Oct. 29, is also still in effect, prohibiting any fire-building or grilling in Austin parks with violations carrying up to $500 fines – around 85% of wildfires are started by people, according to the National Park Service.
When Austin already ranks fifth nationally for number of homes at risk of wildfires, with 18% of buildings directly exposed to wildfire, the city will also revamp its All-Hazards Protective Action Plan for evacuations and launch a Community Wildfire Protection Plan in 2026 to boost Travis County residents’ wildfire preparedness.
Arianna Porter, lead project manager of the community plan from SWCA Environmental Consultants, says they’ll provide the city recommendations toward fire-proofing buildings and public land, improving our firefighting capacity and emergency evacuation systems, and educating homeowners on how they can protect their property and become “fire-adapted communities.” Public community conversations with the group will be held in March and April.
Thompson says there are already things homeowners can do to better fireproof their homes, especially for those living at the edges of Austin where the urban landscape meets the wildlands: Regularly clearing leaves, twigs, and dead vegetation within 5 meters of the home, or creating any kind of non-vegetation barrier around the home that fire couldn’t jump over, are early steps that Austinites can take to protect their property.
As both wildfire and flood risks rise across the state with climate change, and wildfire season is expected to grow longer, other cities are watching the work that Austin is doing toward climate resilience and preparedness, Thompson emphasized. “It’s encouraging to see,” he said. “Normally, things happen after a big event, not before.”
This article appears in December 12 • 2025.