Industry News
Lake Tahoe surpassed its natural rim last weekend on April 10th and the Truckee River is flowing for the first time since June 2015. The last time the Truckee River had any appreciable flow was way back in October 2014.
The question now is how much is the lake forecast to rise above the natural rim? The NRCS is calling for Tahoe to rise 1.2 feet above its natural rim this summer, which is great, but still over 2-feet below average.
“Lake Tahoe is forecast to rise around 1.2 feet above the natural rim this summer.
The range of the forecast is from 0.8 on the low end to almost 1.9 feet on the high end. The forecast takes into account the snowpack, precipitation and evaporation but doesn’t account for water released from the dam which is controlled by the Lake Tahoe Watermaster. There is a minimum required release from Tahoe when the lake level is high enough to support that flow. Evaporation typically exceeds precipitation and inflow by midsummer causing lake level to decrease until reversing in early winter.” – NOAA, today
We’re not sure that’ll be enough for rafting on the Truckee this summer, but it’ll be better than nothing – which is exactly what we had last summer in the Truckee.
