00:36 Lake Tahoe Recovering From Drought Snow meltwater and heavy rains have helped push Lake Tahoe to former high levels.

At a Glance Lake Tahoe's water level is extremely close to its full capacity level.

It has not reached this level in 11 years.

Increased snowmelt and rainfall in the Sierra Nevada area contributed to the influx of water.

For the first time in 11 years, Lake Tahoe is nearing capacity thanks to snow melt coming off of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The lake level peaked at 6,229 feet on July 9, coming extremely close to its full capacity level of 6,229.1, which hasn’t been reached in over a decade , SF Gate reported. The waterway has managed to flourish despite increased evaporation on its surface.

In the summer, evaporation from lakes like Tahoe is generally more efficient due to windier and warmer conditions, according to weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Belles. As the air heats up in the summer afternoons, the humidity in the air drops and moisture – from the lakes, in this case – is attracted to drier skies and evaporates. Without additional rainfall, area bodies of water will lower.

(MORE: Vatican City Shuts Off Famed Fountains Amid Italy Drought )

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/floodsign.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/floodsign.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/floodsign.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > A partially submerged sign on a healthy Lake Tahoe. (Peter Aiello) (Peter Aiello)

"Tahoe is so sensitive to evaporation and because of the very large surface area there was a tremendous amount of loss due to evaporation," U.S. District Court Water Master Chad Blanchard told SF Gate. "We didn't have quite as much as water as we expected right at the end."

Officials told SF Gate the water level is slowly decreasing by up to 0.24 inches a day.

Lake Tahoe was filled to the brim by melting snow pouring down from the Sierras, which filled the waterway with more than 12 billion gallons of water . During the winter, the area was buffeted with snow piled so high that ski resorts had to be shut down in January. More than 10 feet of snow fell in the Sierra over the course of a week.

Data released in April showed this year’s snowpack was more than the previous four years combined and nearly the largest on record. On April 1, NASA measured the Tuolumne Basin's snowpack at 1.2 million acre-feet, or enough snow to fill the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, almost 1,600 times.

Rainfall has also played a part in Lake Tahoe’s flourishing. In April, the northern Sierra Nevada surpassed its all-time wettest "water year" due to a barrage of stormy weather on the mountain. The water year runs from October through September and peaks November through March.

Lake Tahoe is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide and contains an average of 37 trillion gallons of water.

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