Maximum - 47 degrees F, Minimum - 41 degrees F

At lake level, annual snowfall averages 125 inches. At alpine skiing elevations, the snowfall averages300 to 500 inches each year.

Indian Love Call, starring Jeanette McDonald, was the first movie to be filmed at Lake Tahoe in the 1920's. Subsequent films have included The Godfather, starring Al Pacino and Marlon Brando and The Bodyguard, filmed at Fallen Leaf Lake, starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.

Itwas a cold February in 1844 when Christopher “Kit” Carson guided Col. John C. Fremont’s exploration party up the east slope of the Sierras in hope of breaking through the deep snowdrifts and down the west side to the only settlement in that part of the Mexican Territory, Sutter’s Fort (now Sacramento). On Valentine’s Day, Fremont and his mapmaker climbed the first peak south of the pass that Carson had found (descriptions indicate Red Lake Peak), and they saw some 15 miles to the north the blue waters of a mountain lake. Fremont named it Lake Bonpland after a botanist explorer, but he changed his mind and it appeared in later Fremont reports as Mountain Lake.
Col. Jack “Cockeye” Johnson and his Indian companion, “Fallen Leaf” are credited with the early day exploration of Lake Tahoe. They also laid out the main roads that today lead into Lake Valley.
John A. “Snowshoe” Thompson, Tahoe’s first skier (skis were called Norwegian snowshoes in the early days), made his exploits a legend by carrying the mail over the snowclad Sierras in the winters of the 1860’s. His route was from Hangtown (Placerville) to Genoa (the first settlement in Nevada).
In 1853 the lake was called Lake Bigler after a controversial governor of California. Gov. Bigler was a Southern sympathizer and this name was not too popular. In 1862 William Henry Knight, a mapmaker for the Dept. of Interior, invited Dr. Henry DeGroot, a newspaperman, to meet with him in San Francisco to discuss a new name for the lake. Knight wanted an Indian name and DeGroot came up with “tahoe” which, according to him, meant “big water” or “water in high place.” Knight sent this to the Land Office in Washington, and so it started.
Controversy about the name lasted for 80 years with people condemning it and praising it. The California legislature made it officially “Lake Bigler” in 1870, but it still appeared on the maps as “Lake Tahoe.” In 1945 the California Legislature finally made it officially “Lake Tahoe.”
Until the Central Pacific Railroad broke through the Sierra mountains in 1868 and the Virginia and Truckee Railroad was built as a connecting link to the mines, the great “Bonanza Road” was the main artery to Virginia City.
During the 1860’s there passed through the south end of Lake Tahoe all the necessities and luxuries that made Virginia City the “second city” on the west coast. Five thousand teams steadily hauled every creation of man and nature over what is now called Pioneer Trail south of Highway 50.
In the 1870’s the resort possibilities of Lake Tahoe began to emerge and by the turn of the century you could find anything that you can now (on a smaller scale). You could travel by steamer to Lucky Baldwin’s Tallac Resort and see live entertainers, gamble, dance, fish, bike, swim, eat gourmet meals, and imbibe in any of his three bars.
The fabulous steamer “S.S. Tahoe” was one of the early day methods of transportation in the lake basin. The 169’ long steamboat was a daily sight in the summer as she made her mail run around the lake. She carried the U.S. Mail, passengers, and supplies for the many resorts on the lake’s shore. “Mail boat time” was one of the high points of the day as everyone flocked to the pier to see the “Graceful Lady ” dock. Outmoded in the 1930’s, she lay at anchor off Tahoe City for quite a few years before her owner, William Bliss, had her scuttled off Glenbrook rather than sell her for wartime scrap.
With the rise in popularity of skiing as a sport following World War II, the demand came to keep the highways open in winter so skier's could get to the wonderful slopes surrounding the lake. With Tahoe becoming an all year resort, its future became assured.
Lake Tahoe has become the ski center of the world with more chairlifts in a small area than anywhere in the world. With the event of the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley and the World Cup and Pro races at Heavenly, the skiing around Lake Tahoe has finally been recognized as some of the best in the world.