CLaSH - Precipitation Data for Postfire Debris-Flows in southern California, 2021-2025

Postfire debris flows are dangerous hazards that can be triggered suddenly by moderate rainfall. To study, assess, and model postfire debris flows, precipitation information at small spatial (~1-10km) and temporal (~5-60min) scales is crucial.

This project contains 12 gridded precipitation datasets and gauge (point) data over southern California during seven debris-flow triggering storms between 2021 and 2025. The precipitation estimates were gathered from already published, open-access data sources to support work investigating the utility of gridded precipitation data for postfire debris-flow applications. The project also includes a list of documented postfire debris flows during the storms investigated. Location, date, and when available time of the hazard events are included. Information about the datasets, storms, and file organization is contained in the Documentation PDF in the main directory of the project.

The data provided here are intended to help debris-flow researchers visualize and compare the precipitation intensities at the time and location of debris flow events, in order to more knowledgeably select and use precipitation data for modeling and assessment applications. As such, we have included a Jupyter Notebook with example code for visualizing and comparing the data stored in this project. More information about comparing precipitation datasets can be found in our Github repository, listed under "Referenced Data and Software" above.

The research conducted with these data is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Center for Land Surface Hazards (CLaSH).