Wildfire evidence study · California, United States · 2022
Mosquito’s research value extends beyond the fire boundary. It appears in a USGS inventory of measured post-fire debris-flow volumes, creating a route from an incident chronology to observations of subsequent landscape processes. An observation inventory and a hazard model answer different questions.
Documentary review · Sources checked 30 October 2026 · Historical case, not live incident information.
The published event record
| Field | Recorded value |
|---|---|
| Start | 6 September 2022 |
| Later milestone | 22 October 2022 |
| Reported acres | 76,788 |
The fire archive records 76,788 acres in Placer and El Dorado counties and identifies national-forest management. A USGS data release dated 16 November 2025 includes Mosquito among 34 burn areas contributing to an inventory of 227 debris-flow volumes. The number 227 is the entire dataset, not the number of Mosquito events. The release describes accompanying rainfall, terrain, severity and timing fields. See primary records below.
Do not confuse a forecast with an observed deposit
A modeled volume is conditional on a model, its inputs and a rainfall scenario. A measured deposit is evidence of an event that actually occurred, with its own measurement method and uncertainty. Comparing them requires matching the basin, storm and quantity being measured. They cannot be treated as interchangeable columns simply because both use volume units.
The inventory is an opportunity for a focused follow-up analysis: filter records explicitly identified as Mosquito, inspect their measurement methods, identify the triggering rainfall and then compare with the relevant dated assessment. Until that work is done, no site-specific model accuracy or volume total should be claimed.
A fire-wide acreage also cannot determine which drainage produced a debris flow. Basin terrain and burn effects need to be evaluated at their own spatial scale. Nor does an observed flow prove that every nearby basin had the same response.
For recovery questions, the time since fire matters. A 2025 publication date does not mean all its observations occurred in 2025. The event dates inside the dataset are needed to construct a recovery timeline and distinguish delayed publication from a genuinely later geomorphic response.
What this study does and does not establish
Only the published inventory description and assessment-collection description were reviewed here. No Mosquito rows were extracted, no volumes summed and no local hazard forecast generated.
This is a documentary evidence review, not fieldwork or an independent forensic investigation. Published numbers retain their source definitions. Differences are identified rather than silently reconciled. The analysis above is Tecnobosque’s interpretation of the cited record.
Primary records and source notes
- Mosquito Fire: official incident or annual record — chronology, scope and reported figures discussed above.
- USGS 2025 inventory of post-fire debris-flow volumes — used only for the findings explicitly attributed in this study.
- USGS collection of modeled hazard assessments — used only for the findings explicitly attributed in this study.
Continue the investigation
Post-wildfire debris flows: rainfall, runoff and hazard evidence · Read our evidence-review method · Browse United States cases · Browse the full fire archive
Cite this record
Tecnobosque. “Mosquito Fire 2022: From Burned Area to Measured Debris-Flow Evidence.” Documentary evidence review, 30 October 2026. https://tecnobosque.com/mosquito-fire-2022/. Cite the underlying primary source when reusing its figures.