Reno–Tahoe basin
What does this year’s snow mean for a fish a hundred miles away?
Snowpack
Every drop starts here. Sierra snow sits on these ridges for months, then leaves the mountains the slow way — melt, not flood — the pulse that keeps the Truckee running after winter is gone.
Live pillows
Palisades Tahoe
8,010 ft
0 in snow
Mt. Rose Ski Area
8,810 ft
0 in snow
Tahoe City Cross
6,760 ft
0 in snow snow-free
Heavenly Valley
8,540 ft
0 in snow snow-free
Echo Peak
7,650 ft
0 in snow
Marlette Lake
7,860 ft
0 in snow snow-free
The lake
Lake Tahoe is a reservoir with a legal ceiling: about 6,229 feet. A dam at Tahoe City lets water out under the Truckee River Operating Agreement. What leaves the lake is this river.
Right now the surface sits at 6,227.34 feet (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation datum) — 1.76 feet under the legal ceiling.
The outlet is running 276 cubic feet each second — Tahoe spilling into the Truckee.
Live lake
Lake Tahoe at Tahoe City
Lake surface
0.00 ft
Recent birds
50 species reported around Lake Tahoe in the last 14 days — checklists, not a live feed.
- Canada Goose Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Rock Pigeon Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Mourning Dove Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Killdeer Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Great Egret Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Cooper's Hawk Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
The river
The Truckee leaves Tahoe City, cuts through the canyon, and crosses Reno. Same water. Two gauges.
At Reno the river is moving 378 cubic feet past the gauge every second — a late-summer pulse, not the spring rise a spawning fish would need.
Live gauges
Truckee River at Tahoe City
Lake Tahoe outlet
0↓ cfs 0.00↓ ft
Truckee River at Reno
Through Reno
0 cfs 0.00 ft
Recent birds
70 species reported along the Truckee at Tahoe City and Reno in the last 14 days — checklists, not a live feed.
- Canada Goose Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Rock Pigeon Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Mourning Dove Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Killdeer Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Great Egret Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Cooper's Hawk Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
The terminus
The river does not reach the ocean. It ends at Pyramid Lake. The cui-ui lives in exactly one place on Earth — this lake — and every spring it waits at the river mouth for flow high enough to swim upstream and spawn.
Pyramid Lake's surface is at 3,802.04 feet right now.
Live lake
Pyramid Lake near Nixon
Lake surface
0.00 ft
Recent birds
57 species reported around Pyramid Lake and Washoe County in the last 14 days — checklists, not a live feed.
- Northern Harrier Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Great Egret Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Canada Goose Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Rock Pigeon Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Cooper's Hawk Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
- Brewer's Blackbird Wilson Commons Park incl William Brent Rd
The air
The same basin traps smoke. At night a temperature inversion settles over the Truckee Meadows; wildfire haze builds until daytime wind flushes the valley.
Reno is 56°F right now.
Right now the Reno reporting area sits at AQI 54 — moderate, driven by PM2.5.
Live air
Reno-Sparks, NV
0↑ AQI Moderate PM2.5
- O3 0↓ · Good
- PM2.5 0↑ · Moderate
- PM10 0↓ · Good
Live weather
Reno
EW6216 RENO
0°F 0 mph
Tahoe City
TAH-5201 Lake Forest
0°F 0 mph
Truckee
Truckee-Tahoe
0↓°F 0↓ mph
The ground
Reno sits in active country. The Nevada Seismological Laboratory at UNR runs the statewide network; as of this year Nevada's data still helps power California's ShakeAlert, while Nevada waits on its own alerts.
The most recent event in this week's catalog is M 2.4 — 9 km NW of Honey Lake, CA.
Recent quakes
9 km NW of Honey Lake, CA
M 0.0 near surface
3 km SE of East Valley, Nevada
M 0.0 0 km deep
18 km ESE of Silver Springs, Nevada
M 0.0 0 km deep
17 km NNW of Sutcliffe, Nevada
M 0.0 0 km deep