Storm-Induced Geologic Hazards: Case Histories from the 1992–1993 Winter in Southern California and Arizona

A multidisciplinary volume of case histories presenting the work of professionals who investigated catastrophic damage caused by the 1992—1993 winter storms in southern California and Arizona. Papers in this volume discuss topics such as: why severe winter storms occur and how the resulting floods fit into the context of the geological record; flood-damaged infrastructure development and mining operations in river channels; storm damage to four counties in southern California; ground settlement intensified by rising ground water caused by infiltrating rain, and the subsequent litigation; warning the public of imminent debris-flow hazards and how to set the moisture and rainfall thresholds that must be reached to issue a warning; and major infiltrating-rainfall-activated landslides that damaged homes in southern California. The release of this volume marks the 50th anniversary year of the Engineering Geology Division.
Hydroclimatological and paleohydrological context of extreme winter flooding in Arizona, 1993
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Published:January 01, 1997
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CiteCitation
P. Kyle House, Katherine K. Hirschboeck, 1997. "Hydroclimatological and paleohydrological context of extreme winter flooding in Arizona, 1993", Storm-Induced Geologic Hazards: Case Histories from the 1992–1993 Winter in Southern California and Arizona, Robert A. Larson, James E. Slosson
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Abstract
Extreme flooding in Arizona during the winter of 1993 resulted from a nearly optimal combination of flood-enhancing factors involving hydroclimatology, hydro-meteorology, and physiography. The floods of January and February 1993 were the result of record precipitation from the passage of an unusually high number of winter storm fronts. These fronts moved across Arizona as part of an exceptionally active storm track that was located unusually far south. The number of individual storms that entered the region and the relative position of each storm track in relation to previous storms was reflected in a complex spatial and temporal distribution of flood peaks. An analysis of the hydroclimatic context of these floods supports a general conclusion that in Arizona, front-generated winter precipitation is most often the cause of extreme floods in large watersheds, even in basins that tend to experience their greatest frequency of flooding from other types of storms. A comparison of the 1993 floods with gauged, historical, and paleoflood data from Arizona indicates that, although many individual flood peaks were quite large, they were within the range of documented extreme flooding over the past 1,000+ yr. The 1993 flood scenario provides a convincing analogue for the climatic and hydrologic processes that must have operated to generate comparably large paleofloods, that is, abnormally high rainfall totals, repeated accumulation and melting of snow, and rain on snow. Such conditions are initiated and perpetuated by a persistent winter circulation anomaly in the North Pacific Ocean that repeatedly steers alternately warm and cold storms into the region along a southerly displaced storm track. This scenario is enhanced by an active subtropical jet stream, common during El Nino-Southern Oscillation periods.
- Arizona
- atmosphere
- Basin and Range Province
- circulation
- Colorado Plateau
- drainage
- floods
- gauging
- geologic hazards
- Gila River
- hydraulics
- hydrographs
- hydrology
- North America
- paleohydrology
- runoff
- Salt River
- San Pedro River
- Santa Cruz River
- spatial distribution
- temporal distribution
- United States
- watersheds
- waterways
- Verde River