California IN BRIEF : SOUTH LAKE TAHOE : Water Level Sinks to All-Time Low

Drought and evaporation have caused Lake Tahoe to fall to its lowest recorded level, federal water master Garry Stone said. The level was 6,221.74 feet above sea level, matching the all-time recorded low in December, 1934, at the end of a five-year drought. “At this point, I don’t see the lake coming up anytime in the near future,” Stone said. It would take more than 12 feet of snow in the Tahoe Basin to raise the lake just over a foot to its natural rim, he said. That calculation is based on an estimate that one foot of snow is equal to one inch of water. The current snowpack is one-fourth of normal, making 1990-91 the driest water year in the last seven years.