October 2003 Southern California Wildfires

In October 2003, wildfires dramatically altered the runoff characteristics of several major watersheds in Southern California. In order to provide up-to-date information relating to the burn areas, the CNRFC has made adjustments to computational algorithms and collected our products in the following web page for easy access.

In general, burned areas are expected to respond more quickly and deliver more volume. They are also significantly more susceptible to flash floods and debris flows. Adjustments have been made to both flash flood guidance and soil moisture accounting models that support official NWS flood forecast points. In the case of soil moisture accounting models, CNRFC forecasters have access to both an adjusted and unadjusted model so that they can “bracket” the response for severely burned watersheds like the San Diego River basin as the flood event unfolds.

You will also notice that major burn areas are delineated on our maps that depict observed and forecast precipitation as well as observed stage.

Gridded Precipitation Maps

Gage Precipitation Maps

San Bernardino Co. ALERT Rainfall Data- San Bernardino Co. Flood Control District
Los Angeles County Precipitation - Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Works
Srn CA Precipitation Maps and Tables - WFO Los Angeles/Oxnard

Graphical Flash Flood Guidance

Text Flash Flood Guidance

Southern California

Graphical (issued routinely)

MVOC1 - Santa Clara River at Montalvo
SLOC1 - San Luis Rey River at Oceanside
FSNC1 - San Diego River at Fashion Valley

Text (event-driven)

Southern California Forecast Points

Position cursor over Base Reflectivity link to view thumbnail images of base reflectivity, or select link to view individual radar imagery.

Base Reflectivity	Radar
	Base Reflectivity	1-Hour Precipitation	Storm Total Precipitation
	Vandenburg AFB	current | loop	current | loop
	Oxnard	current | loop	current | loop
	Santa Ana	current | loop	current | loop
	San Diego	current | loop	current | loop

Los Angeles/Oxnard Weather Forecast Office
San Diego Weather Forecast Office