Lake Tahoe at highest since 2013; Over 66 billion gallons of water added in 2017

After a series of storms fondly dubbed by South Lake Tahoe locals as "Januburied" and "Snowmaggedon" hit the Lake Tahoe region in January, the water levels in the lake have risen to the highest levels since 2013.

As of January 28, 2017, Lake Tahoe is at an elevation of 6225.08, 2.08 feet above its natural rim of 6,223 feet above sea level. The lake is considered full at the legal limit of 6,229.1 ft, so there is still quite a big of storage left, 482,400 acres of water to be exact.

Each foot of water in Lake Tahoe that is stored against the dam at Tahoe City equates to 120,000 acre feet of water, or 39.1 billion gallons of water. Since January 1, 2017, 66.4 billion gallons of water have been added to the lake.

"We do believe we will have a wet year and may have to spill water at many of the reservoirs this year," Terri Edwards, Area Manager of the Lahontan Basin Area Office told South Tahoe Now. The decision on when to start releasing water from "big blue" is made by the Federal Watermaster.

Even with good amounts of water at the end of 2016 and at the beginning of 2017, the water in the lake is far from record breaking. After years of drought, the extra water (and lack of beach) in Lake Tahoe is now visible.

The worst drought on record at the lake was from 1987 to 1994. During that time, in November of 1992, Lake Tahoe hit its lowest point in 100 years at 6220.2 ft. That was followed by 1994 when Tahoe remained below its natural rim for the entire 12 months. No water was released from the dam that year.

The end of that drought was in 1995 when the lake rose almost six feet between October '94 and July '95. On July 29 that year, the lake was 6226.99 ft.

One has to go back to 1907 to see when Lake Tahoe reached its highest point of 6231.19 ft, something it can longer do since water must legally be reduced when elevation hits 6229.1.

A quick look at some annual high points of the water level of Lake Tahoe:

1970....6229.04
1986....6229.03
1992....6221.87
1994....6222.79
1998....6229.05
2004....6224.30
2005....6225.58
2010....6224.65
2011....6228.42
2012....6227.68
Today...6225.08

Lake Tahoe is controlled at two points. It has a control based on the natural rim of the lake and another control at Tahoe Dam. The natural rim is at elevation 6223.0 feet in altitude. When the lake level rises above the natural rim, water can be stored up to 6,229.1 feet elevation against Tahoe Dam. Lake Tahoe’s elevation is currently 2.08 feet above the natural rim at approximately 6,225.08 feet. If the lake elevation reaches the maximum height against the dam (6,229.1 feet), the dam gates are opened to release water into the river. Releases are also made throughout the season to insure the dam is able to control the elevation rises.

The dam at Tahoe City was originally a rock-filled crib built in 1870 when lumber mills in Truckee used the flow of water to power machinery and flow logs down the Truckee River. It was rebuilt in 1913 to provide water for the Newlands Project which was designed to tap Tahoe's waters to irrigate tens of thousands of acres of farmland east of Reno. The dam controls the level of the top six feet of water in Lake Tahoe, equivalent to 720,000 acre-feet of water or more than 234.6 billion gallons.

Lake Tahoe is fed by 63 streams and two hot springs, so snow melt this spring will add more water to the lake.