About this site

This site’s purpose is to highlight five of California’s most destructive wildfires of the past decade and to explain how the state’s different ecoregions can either curb or accelerate fire ignition and spread. An animated timeline (2001–2023) charts the annual footprint of wildfire across the state, letting site visitors quickly see which years yielded more or fewer fires than others. Together, the individual fire case studies, ecoregion analysis maps, and timeline animation offer a clear picture of the patterns and drivers behind California’s wildfires.

Methods

I used ArcGIS Pro to create every map shown on this website. All data used in mapping is cited in the "Data" section of this site. All map projections, as well as Sentinel-2 imagery, is using the NAD 1983 / UTM Zone 10N projection. Adobe Illustrator was used to make maps, such as the map on the main page "Significant Wildfires" aesthetically pleasing. Adboe Photoshop was used to calculate pixel coordinates for hotspots, to be used in HTML coding.

Author/Contact

This website, and all included maps created by  Max Pursley, Geography 301, St. Cloud State University, Spring 2025.
Questions, comments, or concerns? Contact the author at: max.pursley@go.stcloudstate.edu