Snoqualmie Falls

January 18, 2005

For the last few days, we've had above average rainfall. Monday, the airport logged 2.39"/60.7mm of water in a 24-hour period. Local rivers are at flood stage or beyond. Many roads are underwater; ergo unpassable. A warm breeze coming from Hawaii is adding to local stream conditions (snowmelt).

About 14 miles from my home is one of my favorite spots on the planet: Snoqualmie Falls. It's not the widest, but it is one of the highest (270ft/83m) in the continental United States. The water flow past this point varies widely during the year, from barely a trickle to a torrent. Today, January 18, it was the latter. I visited at about 2pm, and the flow at that time was about 35,000 cubic feet/second. I captured the USGS data for the falls around this time. Click here to download the pdf file.

Here's the USGS realtime monitoring data for this station. Click here for a map showing the location of the falls within the hydrological unit used by the USGS. (look at the bottom of the map). Finally, here's two links link1 and link2 (beggerlybend.com) showing additional views of the falls and the surrounding area. The second link uses an interractive map as a way to navigate the site.

January 19, 2005

I visited the falls again today. The sun was out and it was a much nicer day compared to yesterday. I took more pictures, using some different lenses to try and pick out some of the things I noticed yesterday. On the way in, there was less flooding evident, though there were still fields resembling ponds in places. No water over the roadway, and the waters had retreated so there was no longer any water on the ground.

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Flooding as seen from the road (SR202) near Fall City.
A closer view showing partially submerged buildings and stranded vehicles.
The Falls as seen from the lower viewpoint. (4)	Sign near the boardwalk leading to the lower viewpoint.	View from walkway between the Salish Lodge and the observation deck.
View from the walkway.	View from the observation platform.	All that falling water generates a LOT of mist. The mist was COLD. When the wind shifted, it was warm (60F).
January 19 pictures The waterflow was below flood stage by this time (< 20,000 cu ft/sec)
View looking at the top of the falls, just as the cascade begins.
The observation platform.

November 7, 2006

We've had several days of rain now, topping several local records. There was over 7 inches of rain recorded yesterday at the National Weather Service's weather station at the Sea-Tac Airport. As with the 2005 storm, this is another instance of the Pineapple Express — a tropical jet stream from Hawaii that picks up moisture as it moves across the Pacific Ocean, prior to dumping that moisture on us.

The USGS monitoring station on the Snoqualmie river charted flows over 50k cfs and I had to see it for myself. You can see the peak flow between Nov 6 and Nov 7. I drove out there at about 11am on the 7th. I stuck to the main roads rather than my usual backroad route. Good thing.

The falls were thundering, and it was very wet. Wet because of the mist coming off the falls, and wet because it was still raining pigs and chickens (that's when the deluge goes beyond cats and dogs). The observation platform was engulfed in the mist, and the wind was blowing the droplets into the shelter. Everything was wet, and the area just behind the railing was flooded. I took 4-5 shots and bailed.

The next day, November 8, the weather was considerably nicer. I drove out to the falls again, about noon. It was dry, and you could see blue sky through the patchy clouds. The waterflow had diminished considerably, It was now perhaps 20k cf/s. A nice show, but not what it was yesterday. Still, the bonus falls were working (an overflow pipe that drains downstream from the observation platform). The platform was still pretty damp, due to the mist coming up from the river, so photography was still challenging. I took a few shots there, and then moved back uphill near the Salish Lodge.

After leaving the park, I drove downhill to the second power plant to see the falls from the Boardwalk. Driving home, via SR202, you could see the evidence of flooding, but it didn't seem nearly what it was in January 2005.

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November 7, 2006 Pictures The falls were running at about 48000 cu ft/sec.
View from the observation platform. You can see just how wet it was.	A closer shot of the falls taken from the observation platform. Thanks to Sharmony at Beggarlybend for cleaning up the rain in the photo.	The falls, taken from the viewpoint accessible from the second power plant.

These three shots were all taken on Nov 8th. You can see how much less water is going over at this time; the measured flow is less than half what it was on the 7th.
There's that sign again!	The boardwalk that leads to the lower observation point.	The observation platform, with the bonus falls just to the left.

Just how much water is this?

I know what 25k cfs or 50k cfs (cubic feet per second) looks like going over the falls, but how much water does this really represent? I decided that a swimming pool was something people could relate to. So, let's create a pool that is 60ft by 30ft by 9ft deep. That's 16,200 cubic feet of water, or 121,500 gallons of water. When I saw the falls on Nov 7, the flow rate was just under 50,000 cfs, which amounts to three of these swimming pools full of water going over the edge every second.

Another size reference is an Olympic-sized pool, which is 50m x 25m x 2m, 2500 cubic meters, or 2.5-million litres. This amounts to 85,820 cubic feet, 641,987 gallons.

For comparison, I looked up Niagra Falls in Wikipedia. At high flow, 100,000 cubic feet of water go over the falls every second. That's 6 of our swimming pools every second!

How much water is there in a swimming pool?
Wikipedia's entry on Niagra Falls

USGS water monitoring for W. Washington