Upper Truckee River recedes, 110.65 billion gallons of water added to Lake Tahoe in 2017
Submitted by paula on Sat, 02/11/2017 - 11:36am
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. = Rain and snow in 2017 has brought Lake Tahoe up to levels not seen since the summer of 2013, and they may pass that point this week.
As of February 11, 2017, the lake is 3.14 feet above its natural rim with an elevation of 6,226.14 feet above sea level. To reach the maximum elevation, Lake Tahoe has just 2.86 feet to go, 1.14 to reach "full."
Since February 2, the lake has risen one foot, or 39.1 billion gallons of water. Even better news, in 2017 the lake has gained 2.8 feet, which is 339,600 acre feet of water. Translated into household terms, that is 110.65B gallons of water added to the pristine Alpine lake in just six weeks!
In South Lake Tahoe, the Upper Truckee River, which was above flood stages during the storm, is now starting to recede. The City of South Lake Tahoe Public Works Department put a drone up in the air to survey the local water situation.
To get a sense of how full Lake Tahoe is, here is a list of the highest the lake has been in years prior to the graph in this story. The record height was back in July of 1907 when it reached 6,231.26 ft. The lake won't reach that level again since the watermaster at the dam in Tahoe City starts to release water at its maximum elevation, or flood pool, of 6229 ft.
Today: 6226.14 ft
Past:
2006: 6,229.06 ft, June 28
2007: 6,227.62 ft, Oct. 1
2008: 6,225.67 ft, Oct. 1
2009: 6,224.61 ft, June 7, 15, 17, 18
2010: 6,224.65 ft, July 6-9
2011: 6,228.42 ft, July 30 and Aug. 1
2012: 6,227.68 ft, June 5
2013: 6,226.32 ft, May 18-20, June 9, 10
The lowest Lake Tahoe has been was on November 30, 1992 when hit hit 6220.26 feet above sea level.
There is still a lot of spring runoff ahead for Lake Tahoe.
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