Lake
Tahoe Facts
Elevation:
6229
Length: 22 Miles
Width: 12 Miles
Shoreline: 71 Miles
California: 42 Miles
Nevada: 29 Miles
Storage: 122,160,280 Acre Feet
Water Shed: 519 Square Miles
Surface area: 193 Square Miles or 122,200 Acres
California: 85,200 Acres or 70%
Nevada: 31,700 Acres or 30%
Maximum Depth: 1,645 feet
Average Depth: 989 feet
Surface Water Temperatures: Maximum 68 degrees F.
Minimum 41 degrees F.
Water Temperature at 200 feet: Maximum 47 degrees F.
Minimum 41 degrees F.
Average Annual Rainfall: 8.3 Inches
Average Annual Snowfall: 216 Inches or 18 feet
Total Annual Precipitation: 30 Inches
|
|
(1) The Lake is as long as the English
Channel is wide with the width
of Lake Tahoe being half again as wide as SF Bay.
(2) With a surface area of only 193 square miles (70 of which are in
Nevada) Lake Tahoe contains 122,160,280 acre feet of water, or over
30,000,000 more feet that the combined capacities of ten of the largest
man-made reservoirs in the US.
(3) The Panama Canal averages 700 feet in width and 50 feet in depth,
yet such a canal could be filled by Lake Tahoe's water and extend
completely around the earth at the equator, with enough remaining in
the Lake to fill another channel of the same width and depth running
from San Francisco to New York.
(4) The State of California would be completely covered to a depth of
14-1/2 in., with one dispersion of Lake Tahoe's water, and Texans can
pride themselves on the fact that their extensive Lone Star State could
only be covered to a depth of 8 1/2 in.
(5) On an average, 1,4000,000 tons of water evaporate from the surface
of Lake Tahoe every 24 hours, yet this drops the lake level only one
tenth of an inch. The total evaporation averages more per day than the
water released through the Truckee River Dam outlet; for example, the
maximum flow through the gates at lake level of 6227.56 feet amounts to
1,464 cubic feet per second. If the water that evaporates from the lake
every 24 hours could be recovered, it would supply the daily
requirements of a population of 3,500,000 people.
(6) Lake Mead is backed up 227 miles by Hoover Dam into the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado and is considered one of the largest man-made
lakes in the world. Lake Tahoe contains nearly four times the maximum
capacity of Lake Mead.
(7) Lake Tahoe never freezes over due to the constant movement of water
from the bottom to the surface. This turnover allows an enormous mass
movement of water, and keeps the lake ice free. However, ice may form
at times along the shoreline in small protected inlets.
(8) There are 63 tributaries draining into Lake Tahoe with only one
outlet at the Truckee River.
(9) Lake Tahoe is the highest lake of it size in the United States.
(10) Only 2 lakes in NA are deeper than Lake Tahoe - Crater Lake in OR
(1930 ft) and the Great Slave Lake in Canada (2010 ft).
(11) The cold water at lower depths in Lake Tahoe tends to preserve the
bodies of drowning victims and prevent the formation of gases that
ordinarily would float them to the surface thus many are never
recovered.
|
