The rainfall intensity-duration control of debris flows after wildfire
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Abstract
Increased wildfire activity in the western United States has exposed regional gaps in our understanding of postfire debris-flow generation. To address this problem, we characterized flows in an unstudied area to test the rainfall intensity-duration control of the hazard. Our rainfall measurements and field observations from the northern Sierra Nevada (California, USA) show that debris flows resulted from a short burst rainfall during a low-accumulation storm. In contrast, a much higher accumulation storm (∼10 times more rainfall) with lower short-duration rainfall rates only produced low-hazard flooding. We conclude that total storm rainfall is not an ideal metric for identifying the rainfall conditions that initiate runoff-generated debris flows in the first year after wildfire. Rather, a focus on short-duration (<1 hr), high-intensity rainfall that can occur during localized thunderstorms, or bands of intense rainfall during prolonged rainstorms, is more beneficial for the purposes of hazard assessment and warning.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | The rainfall intensity-duration control of debris flows after wildfire |
| Series title | Geophysical Research Letters |
| DOI | 10.1029/2023GL103645 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Year Published | 2023 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | American Geophysical Union |
| Contributing office(s) | Geologic Hazards Science Center |
| Description | e2023GL103645, 10 p. |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Other Geospatial | North Fork Feather River Canyon |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |