How high is the water near you? Check out Floodzilla.com for forecast information, real-time flood elevations in the lower Valley, and contemporary historical flood data collected by Floodzilla. For help using this powerful tool, contact your Floodzilla Field Scientist at regina@svpa.us. During flood events, the gages are updating every 15 minutes.
The SVPA has developed a citizen-science tool to make it easier to track what’s happening while it’s happening, and also to collect data to gain insight on how flooding is changing.
A team of dedicated members of the valley community, led by original Floodzilla author Geary Eppley, has deployed remote sensing flood gages. The flood gages, placed near roads, on bridges, and in fields throughout the Valley, measure the height of the water level every 15 minutes. This height is sent to our website where it is configured to let Valley residents and visitors know the real-time elevation of flood water. Visit our flood network website to see the gages currently up and running. Do you know of a road or area that needs a gage? Let us know! The SVPA recently received funding from the King County Flood Control District to bring this project from working models to full production.
About the Floodzilla Gage Network
The Snoqualmie Valley Preservation Alliance’s (SVPA) Floodzilla Gage Network monitors water levels throughout the Snoqualmie Valley, in real-time. This flood monitoring network is the innovation of a group of local technology professionals who have volunteered their time and expertise to develop this tool for the benefit of the community. Paid staff and consultants have also contributed to the project with funding through SVPA’s generous donors and with a grant from King County Flood Control District.
The Floodzilla Gage Network relies on a series of SVPA gages placed in strategic locations to monitor water levels in drainage ditches, farm fields, on public roads, and on the Mainstem Snoqualmie River. The SVPA gages are ultrasonic sensors that have been programmed to read and transmit water level data every 15 minutes during flood season, from October through May.
While the USGS gages have provided reliable Snoqualmie River water level data to valley residents for decades, there is only one gage on a 30-mile stretch of river between the USGS Snoqualmie Falls gage at river mile (RM) 40, and the USGS Duvall gage at RM 10. During flood events, there can be a significant, and unpredictable lag between the timing of upstream flooding in the Fall City/Carnation area and flooding further downstream near Duvall. The SVPA Floodzilla Gage Network fills in this data gap with gages on the river and in nearby farm fields and ditches, giving the farmers, residents, and commuters vastly more information to prepare.
Flood impacts to local roads is of significant importance to farmers, residents, and commuters. Most roads that go under during flooding do not flood as a result of overbank flooding from the river, but instead, from inundation of adjacent ditches or fields. The SVPA Floodzilla Gage Network monitors water levels not only in the river, but also to provide information to the public whether or not there is water on a particular road, as well as how deep it is. This is helpful when roads are not flooding yet, as they show height of the water relative to the spot where the road first goes under.
We hope you find this information useful! If you have any questions about the SVPA’s Floodzilla Gage Network, please contact us at info@svpa.us or call the office at 425-549-0316. Regina Fletcher regina@svpa.us is the Field Scientist for this project.