Wildfires are a common and natural occurrence during the summer in areas of the world with a Mditerranean climate (Köppen Csa). The climate and vegetation composition are ideal for fires as they offer the right balance between the available resource to start a fire, and the relatively low level of humidity and moisture in the air. The wildfires are necessary for some plants to spread seeds and germinate to expand their species.

Only five areas of the world fall under such a regime, and a large part of California fits perfectly within the defined parameters. Due to the state’s large population and importance to the US as its technological and entertainment leader, wildfire implications here are very serious in its overall human health degradation and destructive capability. It is worth assessing this decades’ worth of wildfires in California in particular as they have all peaked to extreme levels since record keeping began. Exceptional drought from 2011 to 2014 gave rise to wildfires, which made its way into high profile neighborhoods of Los Angeles and destroyed high value property. Another period of drought and wildfires for 2017 exacerbated the problem once more when the state thought they had cleared the worst conditions. With the implications of global warming, these rare one-off big wildfires are only likely to become more commonplace.

Due to the available scope of the topic, a specific focus is required, and so is the omission of variables that does not conform to my study. It is known that drought is the trigger required for big wildfires, however the actual precipitation levels of the state for this decade are not within the scope of this project. It was decided to study the fire itself, along with the impacts and implications to people’s health because that is more relevant in the context of the Californian residents. There is more relevancies to studying fires that are of danger to people, not just where the biggest wildfires are in the remote corners of the state.