Brief communication: Meteorological and climatological conditions associated with the 9 January 2018 post-fire debris flows in Montecito and Carpinteria, California, USA

American Meteorological Society (AMS): Glossary of Meteorology: Atmospheric River, available at: http://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river, last access: 1 April 2018.

Bonnin, G. M., Martin, D., Lin, B., Parzybok, T., Yekta, M., and Riley, D.: Precipitation-frequency atlas of the United States, NOAA Atlas, 14, 1–65, 2006.

CAL FIRE: Thomas Fire Watershed Emergency Response Team Final Report, available at: http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/admin8327985/cdf/images/incidentfile1922_3383.pdf, last access: 12 April 2018.

California Department of Insurance: Montecito mudslide claims top $421 million, available at: http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2018/release033-18.cfm, last access: 4 April 2018.

County of Santa Barbara: Thomas Fire and 1/9 debris flow recovery strategic plan, available at: https://www.scribd.com/document/381185041/Santa-Barbara-County-Recovery-Strategic-Plan, last access: 8 June 2018.

Elliott, R. D. and Hovind, E. L.: On convection bands within Pacific Coast storms and their relation to storm structure, J. Appl. Meteorol., 3, 143–154, 1964.

Garfin, G., LeRoy, S., Martin, D., Hammersley, M., Youberg, A., and Quay, R.: Managing for future risks of fire, extreme precipitation, and post-fire flooding, Report to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, from the project Enhancing Water Supply Reliability, Tucson, AZ: Institute of the Environment, available at: https://bit.ly/2LRhCtQ (last access: 8 July 2018), 2016.

Gatzen, C.: A 10-year climatology of cold-season narrow cold-frontal rainbands in Germany, Atmos. Res., 100, 366–370, 2011.

Hobbs, P. V. and Persson, P. O. G.: The mesoscale and microscale structure and organization of clouds and precipitation in midlatitude cyclones. Part V: The substructure of narrow cold-frontal rainbands, J. Atmos. Sci., 39, 280–295, 1982.

Lin, Y. L., Chiao, S., Wang, T. A., Kaplan, M. L., and Weglarz, R. P.: Some common ingredients for heavy orographic rainfall, Weather Forecast., 16, 633–660, 2001.

Lin II, R. G., Xia, R., and Rañoa, R.: As California goes from drought to deluge a dangerous old foe returns: mudslides, available at: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-how-landslides-work-20170121-story.html, last access: 10 March 2018.

Markowski, P. and Richardson, Y.: Mesoscale Meteorology in Midlatitudes, Wiley-Blackwell, Barcelona, 2010.

Neiman, P. J., Martin Ralph, F., Persson, P. O. G., White, A. B., Jorgensen, D. P., and Kingsmill, D. E.: Modification of fronts and precipitation by coastal blocking during an intense landfalling winter storm in southern California: Observations during CALJET, Mon. Weather Rev., 132, 242–273, 2004.

Oakley, N. S., Lancaster, J. T., Kaplan, M. L., and Ralph, F. M.: Synoptic conditions associated with cool season post-fire debris flows in the Transverse Ranges of southern California, Nat. Hazards, 88, 327–354, 2017.

Roux, F., Marécal, V., and Hauser, D.: The 12/13 January 1988 narrow cold-frontal rainband observed during MFDP/FRONTS 87. Part I: Kinematics and thermodynamics, J. Atmos. Sci., 50, 951–974, 1993.

Staley, D. M., Negri, J. A., Kean, J. W., Laber, J. L., Tillery, A. C., and Youberg, A. M.: Prediction of spatially explicit rainfall intensity–duration thresholds for post-fire debris-flow generation in the western United States, Geomorphology, 278, 149–162, 2017.

Sukup, S. J., Laber, J., Sweet, D., and Thompson, R.: Analysis of an intense narrow cold frontal rainband and the Springs Fire debris flow of 12 December 2014, NWS technical attachment 1601, https://www.weather.gov/media/wrh/online_publications/TAs/TA1601.pdf, (last access: 5 November 2018), 2016.

Saha, S., Moorthi, S., Wu, X., Wang, J., and Coauthors: The NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2, J. Climate, 27, 2185–2208, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00823.1, 2014.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Flood plain information, Montecito streams, vicinity of Montecito, Santa Barbara County, California, http://www.countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/pwd/Content/Water/MontStreamsRpt1974.pdf (last access: 4 April 2018), 1974.

USGS: Emergency Assessment of Post-Fire Debris Flow Hazards: Thomas Fire, available at: https://landslides.usgs.gov/hazards/postfire_debrisflow/, last access: 12 April 2018a.

USGS: Earth Explorer, Landsat 8, Operational Land Imager, Thermal Infrared Sensor Surface Reflectance image dated 11 February 2018, available at: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/, last access: 5 May 2018b.

Viale, M., Houze Jr., R. A., and Rasmussen, K. L.: Upstream orographic enhancement of a narrow cold-frontal rainband approaching the Andes, Mon. Weather Rev., 141, 1708–1730, 2013.

Wells II, W. G.: The effects of fire on the generation of debris flows in southern California, in: Debris flows/avalanches – process, recognition, and mitigation, edited by: Costa, J. E. and Wieczorek, G. F., Geological Society of America, Reviews in Engineering Geology VII, 105–114, 1987.