RENO — The biggest alpine lake in North America is warming faster than ever thanks in large part to a changing global climate.
That’s according to scientists who study Lake Tahoe to produce reports on everything from water temperature to clarity to invasive species.
The latest data in the State of the Lake report shows average water temperature in the lake increased nearly half a degree in one year. That’s 15 times the long-term rate of warming. The average surface temperature reached 53.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The overall average water temperature is a little over 43 degrees.
Geoffrey Schladow of the University of California-Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center said the changes at Lake Tahoe highlight the magnitude of human-caused global climate change.
“That is a huge amount of water,” Schladlow said of Lake Tahoe, which reaches more than 1,600 feet in depth. If the water were spread out over an area the size of California it would still be 15 inches deep, he said.
“It takes a lot of energy to raise that a half degree,” Schladow said.
Average annual clarity also decreased 4.8 feet to 73.1 feet, although it’s still more clear than it was in 1997, when clarity was 64.1 feet.
The changing nature of Lake Tahoe is a reflection of the world around it. Air temperatures in the region are getting warmer and a shrinking percentage of precipitation is coming in the form of snow.
In the year covered by the most recent data, which ended Sept. 30, 2015, only 6.5% of precipitation came in the form of snow.
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