Post-Fire Debris-Flow Early Warning: The Case for Forecast-Based Warning Systems

• Post-re debris flows can initiate after only a few minutes of intense rain, and during the first storm following wildfire.
• Early warning systems must provide sufficient time to make informed decisions and take reasonable preventative action.
• If you're relying upon real-time measurements of stream ow or rainfall in your watershed to decide when to take action, it is too late
• Measurements of debris flows are important for improving our understanding of these phenomena, but are of limited utility for early warning.

Speakers: Dennis Staley and Jason Kean, USGS; Mark Jackson, National Weather Service