Preliminary evaluation of the fire-related debris flows on Storm King Mountain, Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Abstract

The South Canyon Fire of July 1994 burned 2,000 acres of pinyon-juniper and mountain shrub vegetative communities on Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs, Colorado. On the night of September 1, 1994 at approximately 10:30 pm, in response to a torrential downpour, a wall of mud, rocks and burned trees came crashing down onto Interstate 1-70 in four places. Throughout the night and early morning hours material continued to flow out of the canyons, inundating sections of a 3-mile length of Interstate 1-70 under tons of rocks and mud. Although the burned area was seeded in November of 1994, the potential for continuing and destructive debris-flow activity still remains.