Viral Photo | Snoqualmie Falls One Week Comparison, Picture Really does Tell the Story

All summer long and into early Fall we heard it, the Pacific Northwest is in a drought. Even in mid-October TV commercials were still urging us to conserve water.

It might be safe to take a long shower now.  Maybe?

Over the past seven days the rain gauge at www.northbendweather.com picked up almost 6.50 inches, with most of it coming over the weekend. And the Cascades are even getting some snow, with Alpental reporting 9″ of new snow at the top of ski runs on Monday, November 2nd.

At least maybe we can call it a great start at making up for the lack of rain and seasonable hot temperatures over the summer?

Yesterday, a photo was shared on the Living Snoqualmie Facebook page that very poignantly illustrated the phrase, “What a difference a week makes,” when it comes to the Snoqualmie River.

Story Behind the Photo Gone Viral 

Krisha Chiu, a Snoqualmie resident, had been at Snoqualmie Falls approximately a week apart with her husband Richard who loves to photograph the Falls. They snapped one shot on Friday, October 23rd while some trees near the river were changing colors. Then, as a Halloween weekend storm was wrapping up on Sunday, November 1st, they returned and photographed the Falls from the same spot – the upper observation deck.

Krisha took both pictures and created a comparison photo – and shared it in the Facebook comment thread of an article about the weekend storm and the rising Snoqualmie River.

Finding the photo compelling, we shared it to our Facebook page on Sunday night.  By Monday evening, November 2nd, the comparison photo had been shared nearly 15,000 times.

Some have left comments and asked if they were being fooled, saying the first photo shows colorful leaves and the second photo shows green. But if you look closely you will see the leaves are actually gone in the second photo, as the weekend storm was accompanied by three days of strong winds.

Krisha said she was not trying to fool anyone with the photo. She was just trying to show what a difference a week (and lighting) makes.

And that’s the story of how two simple pictures of Snoqualmie Falls, taken nine days apart, can become one photo and go a little bit viral thanks to the power of social media.

Thanks Krisha and Richard.  It’s a great photo – and it tells a great story.