Post-wildfire debris-flow monitoring data, Arroyo Seco, 2009 Station Fire, Los Angeles County, California, November 2009 to March 2010.

This data release includes time-series data from a monitoring site located in a small drainage basin in the Arroyo Seco watershed in Los Angeles County, CA, USA (N3788964 E389956, UTM Zone 11, NAD83). The site was established after the 2009 Station Fire and recorded a series debris flows in the first winter after the fire. The data include three types of time-series: (1) 1-minute time series of rainfall, soil water content, channel bed pore pressure and temperature, and flow stage recorded by radar and laser distance meters (ArroyoSecoContinuous.csv); (2) 10-Hz time series of flow stage recorded by the laser distance meter during rain storms (ArroyoSecoStormLaser.csv), and (3) 2-second time series of rainfall and channel bed pore pressure and temperature during rain storms (ArroyoSecoStormPressureRain.csv). The laser and radar distance meters are suspended above the pore pressure sensor mounted in the bedrock of the channel. The equations for converting the distance measurements into flow stage above the pressure sensor (or stage of the stationary bed surface during times of no flow) are given by the equations Stage_laser (meters) = 2.107 meters – Distance_laser (meters), and Stage_radar (meters) = 2.156 meters – Distance_radar (feet)*0.3048 Details of this study are described in the journal article: Kean, J. W., D. M. Staley, and S. H. Cannon (2011), In situ measurements of post-fire debris flows in southern California: Comparisons of the timing and magnitude of 24 debris-flow events with rainfall and soil moisture conditions, J. Geophys. Res., 116, F04019, doi:10.1029/2011JF002005.