Double whammy: After the fires, the mudslides begin
By Daisy Simmons | December 29, 2020
Infographic courtesy of National Weather Service.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Yale Climate Connections, an initiative of the Yale Center for Environmental Communication.
After a fire, rain can feel like a refreshing mercy. But it also spells fresh danger in fire-struck areas made newly vulnerable to mudslides. Amidst recovering from the trauma of a wildfire, people in hillside homes across much of the western United States, in particular, must now be ready to evacuate when threatening heavy rains appear in the forecast.
That’s because fires do more to the physical environment than level buildings and fell trees. They also alter the makeup of the soil, making it less likely it will absorb rainwater, especially during a downpour.
“The same intensity of rain can generate overland flows more than 10 times greater in areas recently burned compared to those without fire,†Arizona State University environmental engineer Mikhail Chester said in Popular Science.
https://thebulletin.org/2020/12/double-whammy-after-the-fires-the-mudslides-begin/
