Articles | Volume 22, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-361-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-361-2022
Research article
 | 
10 Feb 2022
Research article |  | 10 Feb 2022

Temporal changes in rainfall intensity–duration thresholds for post-wildfire flash floods in southern California

Tao Liu, Luke A. McGuire, Nina Oakley, and Forest Cannon

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Short summary
A well-constrained rainfall-runoff model forced by radar-derived precipitation is used to define rainfall intensity-duration (ID) thresholds for flash floods. The rainfall ID doubles in 5 years after a severe wildfire in a watershed in southern California, USA. Rainfall ID performs stably well for intense pulses of rainfall over durations of 30-60 minutes that cover at least 15%-25% of the watershed. This finding could help issuing flash flood warnings based on radar-derived precipitation.
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