Carnelian Bay, California
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Lake Tahoe census division. It lies in ZIP code area 96140. It lies near Carnelian Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Kings Beach quadrangle. 518 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,325 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1891 to 1992The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1891 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresCarnelian Bay fell from 524 to 518 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 524 | |
| 2020 | 518 | -6 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 32 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1891 USGS Truckee quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Truckee quadrangle1:125000
- 1895 USGS Truckee quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
- 1932 USGS Truckee quadrangle1:96000
- 1940 USGS Truckee quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Kings Beach quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Tahoe quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
- 1977 USGS Truckee quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1992 USGS Kings Beach quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
340 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 340 fires within 5 miles of Carnelian Bay between 1992 and 2020, burning about 441 acres in total. 24 started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 104 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 88 |
| Smoking | 44 |
| Natural | 24 |
| Debris and open burning | 23 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 23 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 17 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit | CUTTHROAT |
| 8 September 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | BEAVER 3 |
| 7 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | BEAVER |
| 6 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | WATSON |
| 6 September 1997 | Smoking | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | CANTERBURY |
| 5 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | OLD |
| 5 September 1996 | Smoking | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | POLARIS |
| 5 September 1992 | Smoking | under an acre | Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Carnelian Bay: 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed Location | Gold | Prospect |
Storms near this place
1 since 2025Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Carnelian Bay in 1 storm report in 2025: 1 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | Heavy Rain | Carnelian Bay | - | Measured 0.33 inches of rain in 20 minutes as well as pea size hail. In addition, there was a 51 mph thunderstorm wind gust measure at JPL04 mesonet station on Lake Tahoe. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ridgewood | 0.9 miles | 32 | |
| Tahoe Marina Estates | 1.4 miles | 32 | |
| Cedar Flat | 1.4 miles | 32 | |
| Carnelian Heights | 1.6 miles | 32 | |
| Tahoe Estates | 1.8 miles | 32 | |
| Tahoe Vista | 1.9 miles | 32 | |
| Kingswood Estates | 2.2 miles | 34 | |
| Wood Vista | 2.8 miles | 32 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Carnelian Bay | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3458617 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 257985. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.










