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Wildfire can radically change a mountainous landscape such that even a modest rainstorm is capable of producing deadly and destructive flash flooding and debris flows.
Instrumentation was installed in the spring following the 2020 Calwood Fire and is used to monitor and detect changes in local hillslope hydrologic conditions and rainfall. Volumetric soil-water content is measured in a hillslope soil pit at 10, 30, and 50 cm depths. Data collected at this site include:
The 2020 Calwood Fire burned more than 10,000 acres in the Colorado Front Range. An emergency assessment of post-fire debris-flow hazards (USGS, 2020) indicated that several drainages across the burn area have a high probability of debris-flow activity. A historic rainstorm in 2013 produced debris flows triggered by shallow landslides in steep areas near the burned area (Coe et al., 2014), suggesting that this region is prone to mass failure. In the spring following the 2020 Calwood Fire, the USGS Landslide Hazards Program installed one telemetered hillslope hydrologic monitoring station on a channel reach that was determined to have a high probability for debris-flow activity. The goals of this station are to (1) collect verification data to inform USGS hazard assessment models, and (2) in the event of a debris flow, to compare the rainfall triggering intensity in the Calwood Fire to those associated with the 2013 storm (Coe et al., 2014).
Calwood burn area, Heil Ranch post-fire debris-flow monitoring station video footage from rainstorm on July 31, 2021 from 14:07 MDT to 14:13:11 MDT.
Calwood burn area, Heil Ranch post-fire debris-flow monitoring station video footage from rainstorm on July 31, 2021 from 14:07 MDT to 14:13:11 MDT.
Wildfire can radically change a mountainous landscape such that even a modest rainstorm is capable of producing deadly and destructive flash flooding and debris flows.
Instrumentation was installed in the spring following the 2020 Calwood Fire and is used to monitor and detect changes in local hillslope hydrologic conditions and rainfall. Volumetric soil-water content is measured in a hillslope soil pit at 10, 30, and 50 cm depths. Data collected at this site include:
The 2020 Calwood Fire burned more than 10,000 acres in the Colorado Front Range. An emergency assessment of post-fire debris-flow hazards (USGS, 2020) indicated that several drainages across the burn area have a high probability of debris-flow activity. A historic rainstorm in 2013 produced debris flows triggered by shallow landslides in steep areas near the burned area (Coe et al., 2014), suggesting that this region is prone to mass failure. In the spring following the 2020 Calwood Fire, the USGS Landslide Hazards Program installed one telemetered hillslope hydrologic monitoring station on a channel reach that was determined to have a high probability for debris-flow activity. The goals of this station are to (1) collect verification data to inform USGS hazard assessment models, and (2) in the event of a debris flow, to compare the rainfall triggering intensity in the Calwood Fire to those associated with the 2013 storm (Coe et al., 2014).
Calwood burn area, Heil Ranch post-fire debris-flow monitoring station video footage from rainstorm on July 31, 2021 from 14:07 MDT to 14:13:11 MDT.
Calwood burn area, Heil Ranch post-fire debris-flow monitoring station video footage from rainstorm on July 31, 2021 from 14:07 MDT to 14:13:11 MDT.