Lake Tahoe’s Water Level Rises Dramatically

I’ve spent so many summers at Lake Tahoe with my family I’m always interested in what’s going on up there. But as the Sierras have suffered through a hideous drought, the San Francisco Chronicle provided some details to a significant surge of water:

More than 6 billion gallons of water have poured into Lake Tahoe in less than two days, helping the lake begin to recover from four years of crushing drought.

Since midnight Monday, the lake has gone up 1.92 inches, the equivalent of 6.39 billion gallons of water.

The water comes as a winter storm slams the Sierra, bringing several feet of snow to higher elevations and rain at lake level, which sits at roughly 6,223 feet.

I took the photos above during my last trip to Tahoe in July 2013, when the lake was still in relatively good shape. Check out the link above to see a harrowing photo of an extremely low Tahoe from earlier this year and you’ll realize what good news this is for the state’s water woes.