Big Bear Lake Rising Lake Level

With all the snow and rain everyone is wondering what this is doing to bring up the water level in the lake.  Well it is nice to report that the rain has been a very big help with melting the snow and providing a one, two punch filling the lake by adding snow melt and rain to the lake at the same time.  Since the ground was already saturated with moisture all the runoff has been going into the lake.  In January the lake level was down by 17 feet.  Then we got some snow and rain to add 3 feet so that we were only 14 feet down.  Right now with all the streams running at a very high level we have so far brought the lake level up so that as of yesterday morning we were only 11 feet 10 inches down from full.  With the amount of water going into the lake we should be at 11 feet in the next day or two.  This would give us a 6 foot or 35% gain.  Which is fantastic.  But we still have a considerable amount of snow in the mountains and the resort slopes to melt and add to the total.  Also, with 2 feet of snow coming and the rain mixed into the storm we may have a chance to get another two or three feet added to the lake. And long-range forecasts have the possibility of another storm. 

I don’t think we will get the lake filled but the rain is the key and we have had and should have in the near future a good amount of rain to give us another one or two, one, two punch events to help the lake. If we could just get another two feet to take us to 9 feet under being full. Which would erase more than half the deficit.  I would call that a very successful year to help the lake level.