How high is SLO’s Laguna Lake? Water is spilling out onto parking lots and trails
San Luis Obispo’s Laguna Lake spilled over its banks on Friday, flooding nearby parking lots.
On Friday morning, the San Luis Obispo lake’s level was so high that it was spreading up into day-use parking lots and onto the road and trails surrounding it at Laguna Lake Park.
The water level increased dramatically over the past two days as a winter storm brought inches of rain to much of the Central Coast.
On Wednesday, parts of San Luis Obispo recorded around 2 inches of rain, while they saw more than 4 inches on Thursday.
That heavy rainfall led to a dramatic rise in Laguna Lake, once bone dry, as its edges began spilling out onto day-use areas of the park. Docks were largely submerged as the water licked at barriers meant to block of cars from the water’s banks.
Throughout the park off Madonna Road, tiny streams fed water back into the lake and created soggy marshes around its fields.
Ian Jennings, who has lived in the Laguna Lake area for about five years, said he has never seen the lake this high.
“Two days ago I was out here and the spillway underneath Madonna Road was entirely bare,” Jennings said. “But then just one day later it is completely full.”
Jennings was out on Friday morning taking photos of the lake and the birds that were flocking to it despite a steady drizzle.
“This morning has been beautiful, honestly,” Jennings said with a laugh. “It’s not windy at all and the birds are very photogenic on the water.”
It’s unclear how deep the lake was as of mid-day Friday. Unlike other larger lakes, the city of San Luis Obispo and San Luis Obispo County don’t release real-time data of Laguna Lake’s levels online.
A previous Tribune report stated the lake is usually about 7 to 9 feet deep. But a significant storm can change that, especially by increasing the amount of sediment at the bottom of the lake.
A request for comment from the city was not immediately returned Friday morning.
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