Dipping into the reserves

The discharge graph for the USGS gaging station just behind the City of Reno's solid waste transfer station (left) illustrates the loss of flow from Lake Tahoe, which occurred shortly after July 28th.  Note that the hydrograph has discharge presented on a log scale--shortly after July 30th flow decreased dramatically in the Truckee, reaching a minimum of about 60 cubic feet per second around mid-day, August 3rd.  Fortunately, several storms (see the graph below from a weather station located at the University of Nevada have increased flow for short periods of time (see precipitation record below). However, without more rain we will likely see a return to the low levels observed before our monsoon-driven storms brought some relief.