Lake Tahoe Water Level
Lake Tahoe is at 6,226.64 ft today (Oct 18), 2.46 ft below its 6,229.1 ft full pool, down 0.13 ft this week.
California & Nevada · Truckee River
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Water level history
About Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a reservoir on the Truckee River in California & Nevada, operated by Federal Watermaster. Its full summer pool sits at 6229.1 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from California's Department of Water Resources (CDEC) and update daily.
Understanding Lake Tahoe's water level
Lake Tahoe is a natural lake with a small dam on top. Its natural rim sits at 6,223 feet, and only the top 6.1 feet of water, from the rim up to the legal maximum of 6,229.1 feet, can be stored and released. That band is held by Lake Tahoe Dam at Tahoe City, an 18 foot high, 109 foot long concrete dam with 17 gated bays and a maximum release of 2,100 cubic feet per second. The Bureau of Reclamation rebuilt it between 1909 and 1913 on the site of an 1870s structure. Those 6.1 feet hold 744,600 acre-feet, about 72 percent of the storage in the Truckee River basin. The Truckee River is the lake's only outlet, and a federal watermaster decides how much goes down it to meet downstream rights. When the lake drops below the rim, nothing reaches the dam at all and outflow to the Truckee stops.
The 6,229.1 foot ceiling comes out of a fight over shorelines. Back to back wet years pushed the lake to 6,231.26 feet in July 1907, eroding the shore, and property owners went to court. The limit was fixed around 1917 and later written into the Truckee River Agreement of 1935. The Orr Ditch Decree followed in 1944, and the Truckee River Operating Agreement, fully implemented in 2016, now governs how the river system is run. The dam's operator has changed over time: the Truckee Carson Irrigation District ran it from 1926 to 1999, and Reclamation has operated it since. The dam itself is aging. Gates stick in their concrete slots or will not close fully because the concrete is deteriorating, and Reclamation began a feasibility study in October 2023 to weigh rehabilitation or replacement.
Because so little of Tahoe is controlled, weather drives the level. Streams, groundwater, and snow and rain falling on 191 square miles of surface raise it; evaporation, withdrawals and Truckee outflow lower it. The record low is 6,220.26 feet on November 30, 1992, 2.74 feet below the rim, during a drought that kept the lake under the rim for years. It slipped below again in October 2021 and from October 24 to December 27, 2022, bottoming at 6,222.58 feet. The huge 2023 snowpack then lifted it to about 6,228 feet by July, and on June 11, 2024 it peaked at 6,229.04 feet, within about an inch of the limit. UC Davis tracks clarity with a white Secchi disk: the 2025 average was 69.2 feet, against 97.4 feet averaged from 1967 to 1971.
Lake Tahoe — frequently asked
What is Lake Tahoe's full level?
The legal maximum is 6,229.1 feet above sea level, set by court action around 1917 and carried into the 1935 Truckee River Agreement. Lake Tahoe Dam at Tahoe City cannot hold water above that line. The natural rim is 6,223 feet, so the controlled range is only 6.1 feet deep, though across the whole lake that band holds 744,600 acre-feet.
What is Lake Tahoe's natural rim, and why does it matter?
The rim is 6,223 feet, the lowest point of the lake's natural outlet. Below it, water no longer reaches the dam at Tahoe City and flow from Lake Tahoe into the Truckee River stops entirely. Since the dam was finished in 1913 the lake has dropped below its rim more than 20 times, including six straight years in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
What is Lake Tahoe's record low level?
6,220.26 feet on November 30, 1992, according to the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. That was 2.74 feet below the natural rim, at the end of a long drought in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The most recent dip below the rim was in late 2022, when the lake reached 6,222.58 feet on November 30 before rising back above the rim on December 27.
What is Lake Tahoe's record high level?
Before the legal limit existed, back to back wet years raised the lake to 6,231.26 feet in July 1907, and the shoreline erosion that followed led to the lawsuits that set today's cap. Under the modern 6,229.1 foot limit, the lake peaked at 6,229.04 feet on June 11, 2024, and it also sat within about an inch of the limit for weeks in 2017. The gauge on this page only keeps readings since 2022, so its high and low are recent marks.
Who controls how much water leaves Lake Tahoe?
A federal watermaster sets releases from Lake Tahoe Dam so downstream water rights on the Truckee River are met. The Bureau of Reclamation holds a perpetual easement to operate the dam, which sits on private land, and has run it since 1999; the Truckee Carson Irrigation District operated it from 1926 to 1999. The dam can release up to 2,100 cubic feet per second.
How does low water affect boating on Lake Tahoe?
Launch ramps lose depth first. In May 2022, with the lake near 6,224 feet, the Sand Harbor ramp stayed closed because park officials require at least 6,224.5 feet to launch safely. TRPA's shoreline planning notes that low water makes many private piers unusable, crowds the public ramps that stay open, pushes marinas toward dredging, and forces buoy fields to be moved farther out.
How clear is Lake Tahoe?
UC Davis measures clarity by lowering a white Secchi disk until it disappears. The 2025 annual average was 69.2 feet, up from 62.3 feet in 2024, though researchers call the change within normal variation. Clarity fell steeply through the 1990s and has since plateaued, still well short of the 97.4 feet averaged from 1967 to 1971. After the 2023 snowmelt, summer clarity dropped to 53.5 feet.
Other lakes near Lake Tahoe
- Trinity LakeCA
- Success LakeCA
- Tulloch ReservoirCA
- Stampede ReservoirCA
- Lake BerryessaCA
- Lake SonomaCA
See current levels for all 29 California lakes and reservoirs →
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