Modeling post-wildfire rainfall events in the Feather River Watershed using HEC-HMS

The Feather River Watershed is home to the 2018 Camp Fire (California's Deadliest Wildfire), the 2020 North Complex Fire, and to the 2021 Dixie Fire (California's Largest Single Wildfire). Overall, these three fires combined to burn over 1.4 million acres of land—more than 60% of the Feather River Watershed's 2.3-million-acre area. Such exceptional wildfire activity is a cause for further studies. It has been observed that the extreme temperatures in wildfires not only damage vegetation but soils as well- wildfires much more so than comparatively mild prescribed burns. Our research proposes analyzing streamflow and precipitation data from the Feather River Watershed to quantify the effects of such widespread and severe wildfire over such a short time. This study will use the Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) from the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) to simulate rainfall events and model rainfall-runoff relationships in the Feather River Watershed. Doing so should deepen our understanding of the effects of increasingly common and severe wildfires on watershed characteristics like infiltration and streamflow.