Tahoe rising; releases to Truckee from Lake Tahoe fall

Lake Tahoe water surface elevation 05-09-2017

With warming temperatures and the recent rain, Lake Tahoe water surface elevation jumped 3.7 inches in just 7 days with a distinctly rising trend. Releases from Lake Tahoe Dam, controlled by the Federal Water Master, dropped over the past week to around 1,300 cubic-feet-per-second (CFS). The drop in releases from the Tahoe Dam could be to keep the overall flow in the river through Reno-Sparks below 6,000 CFS as flows from tributaries pour into the Truckee River from increasing snowmelt. Even with the reduction of flows from Tahoe, the Truckee River flow is still near 6,000 CFS at Farad, California.

Truckee River releases at Lake Tahoe 05-09-2017

Flows into Pyramid Lake continue to hover right around 6,000 CFS. Diversions to the Fernley division of the Newlands Project continue to be less than 100 CFS.

With ample snow still covering the upper elevations of the Sierra and Carson Range, high flows will continue for the next weeks on the Truckee River as well as the Carson and Walker Rivers.

Washoe Lake is on both sides of the US 395 freeway as of today. Given that last fall, there remained just a large water puddle in the middle of the larger south end, the turnaround is remarkable.

Washoe Lake at State Park, southeast side of the Lake looking to Slide Mountain in the Carson Range.

 

 

 

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About Dennis Ghiglieri

My concern for the Truckee River grew over the years. It started with picking up trash and supporting better water quality. I helped create the "living river"plan with other citizens on the Community Flood Coalition; a plan to reduce flood impacts to infrastructure through river restoration and protection of the floodplain. I understand how critical the Truckee River is to the environment – and economy – of our entire region. I'm hoping that through these pages we can all understand our connection to the Truckee River and why we need to protect it.