Lake Tahoe’s famously clear blue waters became noticeably murkier in 2024, ranking as the third least clear on record — and the worst in several years — according to a new report from UC Davis researchers who have monitored the lake for decades.
The annual Lake Tahoe Clarity Report, released Monday by the university’s Tahoe Environmental Research Center, found the lake’s average clarity last year was 62.3 feet — nearly six feet shallower than in 2023.
That level of clarity was surpassed in cloudiness only by 2021, when wildfire smoke blanketed the region, and 2017, a year marked by runoff-heavy storms…