Effects of Climate Change Seen on Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is one of hundreds of lakes around the world in the midst of a warming trend. The effects of climate change are starting to complicate efforts to maintain the lake’s relatively pristine state, putting Tahoe’s sapphire blue water and its overall ecological health at risk.

Surrounded by the Sierra Nevada Mountains and stunning scenery, the lake straddles the border between California and Nevada. At 1,645 feet deep, Lake Tahoe is one of the deepest lakes in the world. It is also one of the world’s oldest, at about two million years. Water resides in the lake for about six hundred years and flows out through only one outlet: the Truckee River.

The UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) released the Tahoe: State of the Lake Report 2012 in July. According to the report, the Lake Tahoe region experienced extreme weather conditions in 2011, including one of the wettest and coldest winters on record. Given the local variability from one year to the next, researchers working on the lake benefit from an in-lake monitoring program that stretches back to 1968. This helps them put their results into the context of the long-term record.