I wasn't anywhere near Tahoe last Thursday, but I'm genuinely curious about something related to what you're describing - did the lights appear to follow any kind of consistent directional path, or were they more stationary/hovering?
The reason I ask is that I've been mapping potential ley line convergences across the Pacific Northwest for the past 18 months using Google Earth Pro overlaid with historical survey data, and I've noticed that several reported UAP clusters seem to correlate with what some researchers call ". Earth energy corridors." Lake Tahoe sits in a geologically interesting basin - significant fault activity, granitic substrate, all the things that theoretically could relate to electromagnetic anomalies.
A few specific questions if you can remember:
Approximate altitude - were they below the ridgeline or clearly above it?, Colour/colour shifting - did the hue change, or consistent throughout?, Duration - seconds, minutes, longer?, Any local weather conditions? Low pressure systems can sometimes produce plasma-related phenomena that get misidentified, though that doesn't rule out something genuinely unusual.
I picked up a Celestron NexStar 8SE earlier this year specifically to start documenting anomalies more rigorously rather than just relying on naked-eye observations and secondhand accounts, so I'm trying to build a more methodical picture of these events geographically.
Were there any other witnesses in the area, or has anyone cross-referenced this against FlightAware or ADS-B Exchange to rule out conventional aircraft first?