Rainfall, Volumetric soil-water content, Video, and Geophone Data from the Calwood Fire Burn Area, Colorado, April 2021 to November 2023

Rainfall, volumetric soil-water content, video, and geophone data characterizing postfire rainfall and runoff were collected at two stations in the 2020 Calwood Fire Burn Area in Colorado. This release contains data from stations at two sites named Heil Ranch (40° 8' 43.47" N, 105° 20' 26.352" W) and Calwood (40° 9' 4.76" N, 105° 21' 20.79" W). The data presented here were collected from April 8, 2021, to November 7, 2023 at the Heil Ranch station, and from May 7, 2021, to October 3, 2022 at the Calwood station. Station names (Heil and Calwood) were used as a prefix for the data files. Each data type is described below.
Raw Cumulative Data:
Cumulative rainfall data, xxxxCumulativeRainfall.csv are contained in a comma separated value (CSV) file (here xxxx is replaced with either Heil or Calwood, depending on the station). The data are continuous and sampled at 1-minute intervals. The columns in the CSV file are TIMESTAMP[UTC], RainSlowInt (the depth of rain in each minute [mm]), CumulativeRainfall (cumulative rainfall since the beginning of the record [mm]), and VWC (volumetric water content [V/V]) at three depths below ground surface (1 = 10 cm, 2 = 30 cm, 3 = 50 cm). VWC values outside of the range of 0 to 0.5 represent sensor malfunctions and were replaced with -99999.
Storm Record:
We summarized the rainfall, volumetric soil-water content, and geophone data based on rainstorms. We defined a storm as rain for a duration greater than or equal to 5 minutes or with an accumulation greater than or equal to 2.54 mm until the last rain gauge tip followed by at least 8 hours without precipitation. Each storm was then assigned a storm ID starting at 0. The storm record data, xxxxStormRecord.csv (where xxxx is replaced with either Heil or Calwood, depending on the station), provides peak rainfall intensities and times and volumetric soil-water content information for each storm. The columns from left to right provide the information as follows: ID, StormStart [yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss-tz] ([UTC], timestamp when at least 0.2mm of rain is detected), StormStop [yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss-tz] ([UTC], timestamp of last rain gauge tip followed by at least 8 hours without precipitation), StormDepth [mm] (the amount of rain that fell in the storm), StormDuration [h] (length of storm), I -5 [mm h-1] (peak 5- minute rainfall intensity), I-10 [mm h-1] (peak 10-minute rainfall intensity), I-15 [mm h-1] (peak 15- minute rainfall intensity), I-30 [mm h-1] (peak 30-minute rainfall intensity during the storm), I-60 [mm h-1] (peak 60-minute rainfall intensity), I-5 time [yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss-tz] (the time of the peak 5-minute rainfall intensity), I-10 time yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss-tz] (the time of the peak 10-minute rainfall intensity), I-15 time [yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss-tz] (the time of the peak 15-minute rainfall intensity), I-30 time [yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss-tz] ] (the time of the peak 30-minute rainfall intensity), I-60 time [yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss-tz] (the time of the peak 60-minute rainfall intensity), VWC (volumetric water content at three depths below ground surface (1 = 10 cm, 2 = 30 cm, 3 = 50 cm) at the start of the storm, the time of the peak 15-minute rainfall intensity, and the end of the storm [V/V]).
Geophone Data:
Geophone data, xxxxGeophoneData.zip, are contained in comma separated value (CSV) files (here xxxx is replaced with either Heil or Calwood, depending on the station).  The geophone data are labeled by the corresponding storm ID in the storm record and labeled IDa and IDb if the geophone stopped recording for more than an hour during the storm. The two geophones sampled at 50 Hz, one upstream and one downstream, and were placed 16 m apart at the Heil station and 14.9 m apart at the Calwood station. Geophones were triggered to record when 1.6 mm of rain was detected during a period of 10 minutes, and they continued to record for 30 minutes past the last timestamp when this criteria was met. The columns in each CSV file are TIMESTAMP [UTC], GeophoneUp_mV (the upstream geophone[mV]), GeophoneDn_mV (the downstream geophone [mV]). Note that there are occasional missed records when data points are 0.04 or more seconds apart.
Video:
The videos xxxx_stormID_mmdd.mp4 (or.mov) are organized by storm ID and date where one folder contains data for one storm (here xxxx is replaced with either Heil or Calwood, depending on the station). Within folders for each storm, videos are labeled by the timestamp [UTC] of the end of the video as IMGPhhmm. Some videos in the early mornings or late evenings, or in very intense rainfall, have had brightness and contrast adjustments in Adobe Premiere Pro for better video quality and are in MP4 format. All raw videos are in MOV format. The camera triggers when a minimum of 1.6 mm of rain fall in a 10-minute interval and it records in 16-minute video clips until it has been 30 minutes since the last trigger. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Tags: boulder-county, climatologymeteorologyatmosphere, colorado, environment, front-range, geoscientificinformation, usgs-66bf6e7ed34e033882838ac0
Organization: Department of the Interior