Lake Tahoe Facts – Visit Lake Tahoe This Year!

 

The City of South Lake Tahoe is part of a broader South Shore community that includes California’s El Dorado County in the Tahoe Basin and Nevada’s Douglas County at Stateline/Zephyr Cove:

South Lake Tahoe Population: Including the Stateline area, South Lake Tahoe has a permanent, year-round population of 34,000.

California Sunshine: The sun shines at Lake Tahoe during 75% of the year, or 274 days.

Lake Tahoe Snowfall Levels: At lake level, annual snowfall in South Lake Tahoe averages 125 inches. At alpine skiing elevations, the snowfall averages 300 to 500 inches each year.

Gaming: There are six 24-hour casinos in the South Lake Tahoe area. Together, they have a total of 7,051 slot machines and 411 game tables.

Skiing and Riding: At Heavenly, skiers/riders can enjoy California skiing and riding on one of the 97 trails in the midst of more than 4,800 total acres.

Other Lake Tahoe Facts:

• Lake Tahoe is the North American Continent’s largest Alpine lake and is 22 miles long, 12 miles wide, and covers a surface area of 191.6 square miles, and has 72 miles of shoreline.

• Lake Tahoe is 2/3 in California and 1/3 in the State of Nevada.

• The Lake’s surface is 6,226.95 feet above sea level and the natural rim is 6,223 feet above sea level, making it the highest lake of its size in the United States.

• Mt. Tallac at 9,735 feet is the highest peak rising from the shoreline. The highest point in the Tahoe Basin is Freel Peak at 10,881 feet.

• Lake Tahoe is the third deepest lake in North America and the tenth deepest in the world.(Lake Baikal, in Russia, is the deepest at over 4,600 feet.) Tahoe’s deepest point is 1,645 feet near Crystal Bay. The average depth of Lake Tahoe is 989 feet.

• The estimated 39.75 trillion gallons of water contained in the lake is 99.9 percent pure, with visibility to 75 feet below the surface.

• If Lake Tahoe was completely drained, it would cover a flat area the size of California to a depth of 14 inches, but would take over 700 years to refill.

• Lake Tahoe is, geologically, a “young lake” having been formed 10,000 to 11,000 years ago.

• Glaciers are responsible for carving out the broad U-shaped valleys that hold Emerald Bay, Fallen Leaf Lake, and Cascade Lake.

• Sixty-three streams flow into Lake Tahoe, but only one, the Truckee River, run past Reno and into Pyramid Lake.

• Lake Tahoe loses much of its water to evaporation. If the water that evaporates from the lake every 24 hours could be recovered, it would supply the daily requirements of a city the size of Los Angeles.

• Although the summer’s heat can warm the upper 12 feet to a comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Lake Tahoe never freezes over in the winter; this is due to the constant 39 degrees Fahrenheit, maintained at depths below 700 feet, largely because of the constant movement and volume of water.