Mobile radar provides insights into hydrologic responses in burn areas

Jonathan J. Gourley; Yagmur Derin; Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter; John W. Fulton; Laura A. Hempel; Braden White

doi:10.1071/WF24163

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Mobile radar provides insights into hydrologic responses in burn areas

Jonathan J. Gourley

^A ^* , Yagmur Derin ^B ^C , Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter ^B ^A , John W. Fulton ^D , Laura A. Hempel ^D and Braden White ^E ^A

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, OK, USA.

^B Advanced Radar Research Center, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.

^C Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA.

^D United States Geological Survey, Denver, CO, USA.

^E Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.

^* Correspondence to: jj.gourley@noaa.gov

International Journal of Wildland Fire 34, WF24163 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF24163

Submitted: 27 September 2024 Accepted: 22 April 2025 Published: 26 May 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY)

Abstract

Background

Wildfires often occur in mountainous terrain, regions that pose substantial challenges to operational meteorological and hydrologic observing networks.

Aims

A mobile, post-fire hydrometeorological observatory comprising remote-sensing and in situ instrumentation was developed and deployed in a burnt area to provide unique insights into rainfall-induced post-fire hazards.

Methods

Mobile radar-based rainfall estimates were produced throughout the burn area at 75-m resolution and compared with rain gauge accumulations and basin response variables.

Key results

The mobile radar was capable of resolving details in intra-basin rain fields as well as detecting storms approaching the burn area with accuracy equivalent to rain gauges. Runoff responses were complex and dependent on spatiotemporal patterns and magnitude of rainfall intensity over the burn area.

Conclusions

The complement of the mobile radar with the near-field, non-contact instruments measuring the hydrologic response provided valuable information in regions that are difficult to access and are not routinely monitored by conventional observing networks.

Implications

Post-fire observatories equipped with mobile radars deployed on burn areas provide real-time data, early alerting capabilities and visualizations to potentially guide impact-based decision support for local authorities.

Keywords: debris flows, extreme hydrologic response, mobile observatory, post-fire hazards, rainfall estimation, remote sensing, Rocky Mountains, stream radar, weather radar.

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